El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America, and also one of the most densely populated countries, ranking in the 83rd percentile worldwide in terms of population density. The country has been suffering from persistently low levels of economic growth. Annual GDP growth has exceeded 3 percent only twice since 2000 and averaged just 2.3 percent in recent years.
Between 2007 and 2017, extreme poverty (US$3.2 per person per day) in El Salvador declined from 15% to 8.5%. The country also became a more equal country in recent years, with the second-highest level of equality in Latin America and the Caribbean, after Uruguay, on par with the world average. However, the COVID-19 pandemic will have a significant negative impact, even though El Salvador was the fastest country in Central America to adopt strong containment measures against the outbreak and remains among the least affected in the region (World Bank, 2020).
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