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Country Snapshot - El Salvador  

HighlightsRankingsQuantitative DataLegislationAnalytical WorkProject Portfolio
  • Latin America & Caribbean
  • Lower middle income
  • 6,194,126 (2011)
  • 3,360
El Salvador Flag
Below are select highlights for the data included in the profile.

  1. El Salvador is ranked 86th in Doing Business 2011, recording a 6-point decrease from last year.
  2. According to the latest Enterprise Surveys (2006), the top three constraints to investment in El Salvador are Crime, Theft & Disorder, Practices of the Informal Sector, and Corruption. Seventy-three percent (73%) of firms in El Salvador report competing with unregistered or informal firms, compared to 66% regionally, and 55% for all countries surveyed. Thirty-four percent (34%) of firms in El Salvador expect to make informal payments to public officials to get things done, compared to 21% regionally and 29% for all countries surveyed.
  3. In the World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators report, El Salvador seems to rank around the 50-th percentile for most of the indicators, except for Rule of Law, where El Salvador is around the 25th percentile.
  4. The Index of Economic Freedom 2011 gave El Salvador’s economic freedom score is 68.8, making its economy the 39th freest out of 183 countries in the 2011 Index. Its overall score is 1.1 points lower than last year, with significant declines in property rights and freedom from corruption. El Salvador is ranked 4th out of 29 countries in the South and Central America/Caribbean region, and its overall score remains well above the world average. The Salvadoran economy, with its openness to global trade and investment, remains one of the most economically free in the region. Although the global economic slowdown took a heavy toll on economic growth in 2009, economic expansion has gradually resumed since early 2010. The banking sector remains relatively well developed and capitalized, with an array of financial services available.