The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted some important issues for Suriname’s private sector, such as the lack of digitalization, financial inclusion, and infrastructure. Suriname’s private sector was already challenged by an unfavourable business climate before COVID-19. There was hope that 2020 would bring some positive changes. Indeed, 2020 brought change, but not the change that was expected: the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated what was an already precarious socioeconomic situation.
To curb the spread of COVID-19 infections Suriname closed it borders on March 13, 2020. This had a direct impact on tourism. Strict social distancing measures at the onset of the pandemic also constrained the operations of non-essential businesses.
These are the key findings of an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) survey:
