Paraguay is drawing fresh attention from Wall Street. Facundo Gómez Minujín, the JPMorgan chief executive for the Southern Cone, stated the country’s stability and small state are winning over investors. He leads the American bank’s business across Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia.
Gómez Minujín made the comments to Bloomberg Línea ahead of the Paraguay Investment Forum, held in New York late September, 2026. JPMorgan and Bank of America organised the event jointly. It brought together Paraguayan business leaders and international investors to discuss opportunities in sectors including agribusiness, bioeconomy, financial services and advanced manufacturing. President Santiago Peña and members of his cabinet also took part.
For a bank of JPMorgan’s size to dedicate an entire forum to Paraguay is itself notable. Larger neighbouring economies tend to dominate regional investment conversations. Gómez Minujín’s remarks help explain why the country is earning that attention.
Sectors on JPMorgan’s radar
JPMorgan Chief Gómez Minujín named three areas where he sees the strongest opening for private capital: energy, forestry and infrastructure. Electricity generated from hydropower stood out as a particular draw, especially for industries that depend on a reliable and competitively priced supply. Forestry offers a way to diversify the productive base, he suggested, while infrastructure projects still awaiting tender remain essential to cutting logistics costs.
The rationale behind that list ties back to how far the country has come, in his view. Paraguay’s lack of coastline and historically weak infrastructure once counted against it, cutting it off from global trade routes.
“Paraguay was a country cut off from the world. It did not have access to the sea, nor good infrastructure,” he stated. That same geography, paired with cheap hydroelectric power from plants such as the binational Itaipú dam, has since turned Paraguay into what he calls a logistics hub for the region.
The shift also has implications beyond the sectors Gómez Minujín named directly. Growing demand for energy-intensive projects, including data centres and distribution parks, is expected to feed through into demand for industrial land and warehousing. That demand would concentrate along the country’s main transport corridors, a trend already being watched by property analysts in Asunción.
“Stability. Small state”
Underpinning that shift, according to Gómez Minujín, is Paraguay’s comparatively small state. Asked to sum up the country in a few words, he offered: “Stability. Small state.” A leaner public sector, he explained, gives policymakers room to keep taxes low, which in turn encourages private investment.
“When you have a small state, you can afford to lower taxes,” he says. He credits this combination with one of the lowest tax burdens in Latin America. That, he adds, is a factor behind rising investment flows from Argentina and Brazil.
Paraguay investment grade lifts market profile
JPMorgan’s interest in Paraguay goes beyond public remarks from its executives. In 2026, the bank added Paraguay’s guaraní-denominated bonds to its GBI-EM index, which tracks emerging-market debt. The move can widen the pool of international investors following and buying the country’s local-currency debt.
That inclusion follows Paraguay’s investment-grade rating, held since 2024, which has already raised its profile among global investors. He described conditions in the local market as favourable, pointing to controlled inflation alongside strong growth. The World Bank projects the economy will expand by 4.4% in 2026 and 4.2% in 2027, which it ranks as the best growth performance in South America after Guyana. That estimate is broadly in line with the International Monetary Fund’s own projection of 4.4% growth for 2026.
The gaps JPMorgan still sees
None of this, however, amounts to an unqualified endorsement. Gómez Minujín acknowledged that Paraguay continues to face challenges around transparency, institutional strength, governance and the justice system. He described these gaps as unfinished business alongside the country’s economic gains.
He also pointed to a structural vulnerability: how closely the economy is tied to the weather. Agriculture, forestry and hydroelectric generation, three of the pillars behind Paraguay’s growth story, are all exposed to climate conditions.
“Today, it is a country that is, in some way, very dependent on agriculture,” the JPMorgan Chief warned. Similar climate swings affect Argentina too, he noted, but their impact on Paraguay’s economy tends to be greater.
Taken together, the remarks suggest a bank betting on Paraguay’s trajectory without losing sight of what still needs to change. Whether renewed international attention turns into long-term investment, rather than short-lived enthusiasm, is likely to depend on progress on the institutional questions Gómez Minujín raised himself.
