PANAMA CITY (AP) — President-elect Juan Carlos Varela prides himself on a successful business career running Panama’s biggest liquor company before entering politics. Yet when the conservative politician takes office July 1 he’s promising to implement an economic policy from the playbook of the late Venezuelan socialist Hugo Chavez: price controls.
The economy of this Central American country has soared during the past five years and unemployment is at a record low, but frustration with the high cost of living has been building among Panama’s 3.4 million people, especially the quarter living in poverty who haven’t benefited as much from the boom.
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