Browse Honduras Daily Stories

Foreign direct investment in Honduras represents less than 1% of GDP—about $223 million last quarter—while remittances account for roughly 27% of GDP, prompting business leaders to urge steps to attract capital and create formal jobs.

Foreign direct investment in Honduras fell 27% in the first quarter of 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier, declining to $213 million from $292 million, a loss economists and business leaders attribute partly to weak global conditions and partly to Honduras's competitive disadvantage versus regional peers.

The Cortés Chamber of Commerce president cited a sharp trade deficit with China—Honduras imports about $210 million monthly in Chinese goods while exporting far less—and called for equal competitive conditions and enforcement of tax and labor laws for all foreign investors.

A new CEPAL report shows Latin America received $194.2 billion in foreign investment in 2025, but Honduras failed to rank among the region's top destinations while Brazil, Mexico, and Costa Rica captured most flows as global supply chains shift.

Honduras deposited its ratification of the ICSID convention on July 17, becoming the 159th state to join the World Bank dispute-settlement mechanism for foreign-investment disputes, effective August 16.

Experts debated Honduras's urgent need for electricity-sector reform, warning that failure to reach consensus by July will worsen blackouts, increase public debt, and deter foreign investment, as lawmakers disagree over whether new utilities should remain state-owned or allow private investment.

Amparo Canales, former president of Honduras's College of Economists, says energy reforms will require foreign investment and must avoid politicization, while improving the state power company ENEE's efficiency and protecting its assets from privatization.

Juliette Handal, former president of Honduras's main business council (Cohep), attributed a first-quarter decline in investment to security concerns, including gang violence and massacres, rising energy costs (set to jump 12%), and international supply-chain disruptions, all of which she said undermine investor confidence.

Honduras and the Dominican Republic extended their memorandum of understanding between their investment promotion agencies for another year through July 2027, aimed at attracting foreign investment and strengthening bilateral economic ties.

Analyst Luis Cruz attributes Honduras's lowest investment percentage in Central America to weak legal protections and investor uncertainty, arguing that strengthening the legal framework and offering greater certainty to investors are key to attracting capital and creating jobs.

Honduras's net international investment position stood at minus $11.23 billion in the first quarter of 2026, an improvement of $1.27 billion from the end of 2025 as the country reduced its net debtor position.

The National Logistics Council and National Investment Council signed an agreement under President Nasry Asfura's administration to attract foreign and domestic investment in logistics, trade, and industry, with a goal of creating more than 100,000 formal jobs, backed in part by a 600-million-lempira (about $24 million) expansion of Puerto Cortés's bulk terminal.

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Cortés warned that international companies have suspended investment plans in Honduras pending the outcome of U.S. tariff negotiations, citing concern that a 10% tariff and potential further restrictions could push capital to competing Central American countries and hurt the manufacturing and job sectors.

Engineer Salomón Ordoñez warned that a 12.48% increase in electricity tariffs will raise living costs and dampen foreign investment, urging transparent bidding and cuts to power-system losses to stabilize rates.