Panama: Food, beverages and tobacco (% of value added in manufacturing)

Key figures

Since 1963 it is up 11.31 percentage points from 45.25% in 1963. The World Bank has no value for 17 of the years in between; the chart leaves those gaps open rather than joining across them.

What the numbers say

In 2020, Panama's food, beverages and tobacco (% of value added in manufacturing) fell 0 percentage points on 2019 (from 56.56% to 56.56%).

Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1972 to 2019), the average change was +0.55 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 3.41 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.2 standard deviations below that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 9.72 percentage points in 1975 and the biggest yearly fall was 5.23 percentage points in 1970. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

Worked out from the yearly values above. How the checks work: standard deviation, z-scores and straight-line trends.

Closest to Panama in the 2020 ranking

• Lebanon — 2nd of 4: 40.67%
• Bermuda — 3rd of 4: 16.89%
• Bangladesh — 4th of 4: 15.37%

What this measures

Manufacturing of food, beverages, and tobacco includes industries classified in ISIC (Rev. 3) divisions 15 and 16. Value added is the contribution to the economy by a producer or an industry or an institutional sector, which is estimated by the total value of output produced and deducting the total value of intermediate consumption of goods and services used to produce that output. This indicator is expressed as a percentage of value added in manufacturing which is the contribution to the economy by the manufacturing sector (ISIC Rev. 3 major division D).

Limitations: In establishing classifications systems compilers must define both the types of activities to be described and the units whose activities are to be reported. There are many possibilities, and the choices affect how the statistics can be interpreted and how useful they are in analyzing economic behavior. The ISIC emphasizes commonalities in the production process and is explicitly not intended to measure outputs (for which there is a newly developed Central Product Classification). Nevertheless, the ISIC views an activity as defined by "a process resulting in a homogeneous set of products."

All 41 values

Food, beverages and tobacco (% of value added in manufacturing) in nearby economies

• Argentina — 32.57% (2024)
• Bolivia — 49.39% (2019)
• Brazil — 20.65% (2023)
• Chile — 39.6% (2024)
• Colombia — 37.13% (2023)
• Costa Rica — 35.68% (2023)
• Ecuador — 49.93% (2023)
• Mexico — 22.15% (2024)
• Nicaragua — 50.34% (2024)

More economic policy & debt data for Panama

• Total reserves, including gold (current US$) — US$6.24 billion (2025)
• Total reserves, excluding gold (current US$) — US$6.24 billion (2025)
• Gross Value Added (GVA) at basic prices (current US$) — US$88.24 billion (2025)
• Gross Value Added (GVA) at basic prices (current LCU) — 88.24 billion (2025)
• GDP (current US$) — US$90.46 billion (2025)
• GDP (current LCU) — 90.46 billion (2025)
• GDP (constant 2015 US$) — US$80.68 billion (2025)
• GDP (constant LCU) — 84.75 billion (2025)
• GDP per capita (current US$) — US$19,790 (2025)
• GDP per capita (current LCU) — 19,790 (2025)

Reading data like this

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Questions people ask

What is Panama's food, beverages and tobacco (% of value added in manufacturing)?

56.56% in 2020, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1963?

It is up 11.31 percentage points from 45.25% in 1963. The highest value was 56.56% in 2001 and the lowest 40.08% in 1971.

Is the latest change in food, beverages and tobacco (% of value added in manufacturing) unusual for Panama?

In 2020, Panama's food, beverages and tobacco (% of value added in manufacturing) fell 0 percentage points on 2019 (from 56.56% to 56.56%). Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1972 to 2019), the average change was +0.55 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 3.41 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.2 standard deviations below that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

Where does this data come from?

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator NV.MNF.FBTO.ZS.UN, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: International Yearbook of Industrial Statistics, UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Figures are fetched from the World Bank API and refreshed monthly; see the series on data.worldbank.org. The full definition and method are in the World Bank's metadata glossary. Comparisons use the same World Bank release.

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