Paraguay economy snapshot: growth, debt and sector scores

Size and income

Paraguay has 7.0 million people and produced $49.3 billion in 2025, which is $7,027 per head. The official exchange rate in the series is 7,545.4 guaranies per US dollar for 2025. Unemployment on the ILO modelled series is 4.8%.

Growth and prices

Real growth was 6.6% and consumer price inflation was 4.0% in 2025. Both come from the World Bank series carried in the Invest Global dataset. Output of $49.3 billion and income of $7,027 per head sit alongside a population of 7.0 million. Net foreign direct investment inflows of 2.4% of GDP are reported for the same period.

Public debt

The IMF World Economic Outlook series puts general government gross debt at 38.2% of GDP for 2025. This article makes no statement about servicing costs.

External accounts

The current account balance is -2.5% of GDP for 2025, and net foreign direct investment inflows are 2.4% of GDP. Reserves of $9.6 billion are the 2024 reading, equal to 5.6 months of imports. The reserves figures are one year older than the growth and inflation figures.

Reading the numbers together

Growth of 6.6% sits next to inflation of 4.0%, and they are separate series. Debt of 38.2% of GDP is reported next to a current account balance of -2.5% of GDP. Reserves of $9.6 billion are a 2024 reading. Each figure carries its own period, and the sources list gives the as-of date. This article does not cover the banking sector and makes no statement about any individual bank or institution.

Openness to foreign investment

The OECD FDI Regulatory Restrictiveness Index scores Paraguay 0.006 for 2025, on a scale from zero for open to one for closed. The components are foreign equity limitations at 0.004, screening and approval at 0.000 and other operational restrictions at 0.000.

How the sector scores are built

In the model's own words: "Each score is a weighted average of percentile ranks. For every indicator, a country's latest observation (not older than 2014) is ranked against all other countries with data (mid-rank percentile, 0 to 1). Where a lower raw value signals more headroom (for example electricity access), the rank is inverted. The weighted average of the available percentiles is scaled to 0 to 100. A cell is published only if indicators holding at least 60 percent of the weight are available; otherwise the country is omitted for that sector."

Each sector below lists its inputs. Each score is relative to other countries. This pack carries four sector scores for Paraguay: agriculture, industrials, financials and real estate.

The four sector scores

The model states what a score means: "The score describes how large and relevant a sector is in a country's economy and opportunity set, relative to other countries. It is not a measure of attractiveness, return or risk, and it is not investment advice."

Agriculture and food score 67 out of 100. Rationale: Agriculture is 11.6% of GDP; food is 69.1% of merchandise exports (2025). Inputs: Agriculture value added (weight 40%); Food exports (weight 20%); Agricultural raw materials exports (weight 15%); Arable land (weight 15%); Cereal yield (weight 10%, inverted).

Industrials and manufacturing score 66 out of 100. Rationale: Manufacturing is 19.4% of GDP; industry is 32.3% of GDP (2025). Inputs: Manufacturing value added (weight 35%); Manufactures exports (weight 35%); Industry value added (weight 30%).

Financials score 64 out of 100. Rationale: Private sector credit is 55.7% of GDP; 60.9% of adults hold a financial account (2024, 2025). Inputs: Domestic credit to private sector (weight 35%); Market capitalization of listed companies (weight 20%); Account ownership at a financial institution (weight 25%, inverted); Mobile subscriptions per 100 people (weight 20%).

Real estate scores 58 out of 100. Rationale: The urban population grows 2.0% a year; 70.4% of the population is urban (2025). Inputs: Urban population growth (weight 30%); Urban population (weight 25%); GDP per capita (weight 15%); Urban population in slums (weight 15%); Population ages 15-64 (weight 15%).

Where to look next

See the Paraguay country profile, the agriculture sector page, the financials sector page and the data status page. The sources list shows the retrieval date of each figure, and every value comes from the World Bank, the IMF, the OECD or the Invest Global exposure model. Sector names are examples, not recommendations.