According to the National Institute of Statistics (INE)’s Continuous Permanent Household Survey (EPHC), the non-agricultural informal employment rate stood at around 62.5% in 2024, with marginal improvements in 2025. Nationwide, including agriculture, informality hovers around 67–68% and affects nearly seven out of every ten employed individuals.

Paraguay ended 2025 with a set of economic indicators that few of its neighbors can match. Unemployment in the fourth quarter stood at 3.6 percent, a nine-year low. A net total of 119,000 jobs were created, and the employment rate reached 70.8%. Between 2023 and 2025, the country led the region in formal employment growth, according to the ILO. The Central Bank reports GDP growth of 4.2%. On paper, the numbers add up. At home, not always.

César Addario analyzes the Paraguayan economy in 2026: 6% growth and investment in New York versus informal employment and the microeconomic challenges facing households.

This series began by asking why a country can appear stable and yet still leave people struggling to make ends meet each month. It concludes here, in Chapter 12, with the only thing that matters when there are no more prologues left: how to make the macro level impact the micro level, what needs to be changed, how, and in what order. Without that sequence, the 4.2 percent of GDP—the figure the BCP is projecting for 2026, following a 2025 figure of around 6 percent—will continue to shine in the monetary policy report but not in households.

The Paraguayan economy is growing, but not at the same rate across the entire country. While national poverty fell to 16% in 2025, the rural areas have a poverty rate of 22.1%. This gap reflects disparities in access to credit, infrastructure, formal employment, and costs that hold back rural development.