[18] However, Guatemala remains one of the poorest countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, having highly unequal incomes and chronically malnourished children.

[20] On 1 July 2006, the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) entered into force between the United States and Guatemala.

[22] Guatemala's large expatriate community in the United States, has made it the top remittance recipient in Central America.

[citation needed] Most of its manufacturing is light assembly and food processing, geared to the domestic, U.S., and Central American markets.

The United States is the country's largest trading partner, providing 36% of Guatemala's imports and receiving 40% of its exports.

[24] The government sector is small and shrinking, with its business activities limited to public utilities—some of which have been privatized—ports and airports and several development-oriented financial institutions.

Due to concerns over serious worker rights protection issues, however, Guatemala's benefits under both the CBTPA and GSP are currently under review.

[25] The Inequality-adjusted HDI (IHDI) index for Guatemala is 0.481 (Data from 2019), below the average for Latin America (0.596) and distant from the countries with very high human development (0.800).

[37] The 2013 DOL report stated that "Guatemala [...] lacks Government programs targeting sectors in which children are known to engage in exploitative labor, such as domestic service, mining, quarrying, and construction."

Workers started to leave the maquila factories for reasons including stress, bad treatment, poor payment, etc.

[39] Current economic priorities include:[citation needed] Import tariffs have been lowered in conjunction with Guatemala's Central American neighbors so that most fall between 0% and 15%, with further reductions planned.

The United States, along with other donor countries—especially France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Japan, and the international financial institutions—have increased development project financing.

Donors' response to the need for international financial support funds for implementation of the Peace Accords is, however, contingent upon Guatemalan government reforms and counterpart financing.

Problems hindering economic growth include high crime rates, illiteracy and low levels of education, and an inadequate and underdeveloped capital market.

Guatemala's social indicators, such as infant mortality and illiteracy, are successively improving, but remain in low growth and are still among the worst in the hemisphere.

In 2005 Guatemala ratified its signature to the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) between the United States and several other Central American countries.

In rural areas, although electricity consumption per household is very low, the ratings can represent more than 20% of farmers' salaries according to the Comité de développement paysan (Codeca).

To protest against this situation and demand the renationalization of electrical services, Codeca members organized demonstrations and exposed themselves to repression.

In September 2009, Guatemalan President Álvaro Colom declared that lack of food and proper nutrition were a national emergency.

As of 2013, demand for biofuels has resulted in diversion of land from subsistence agriculture to sugar cane and African Palm plantations.

Due to legal requirements for production of biofuels in the United States the price of maize, a Guatemalan staple, has risen sharply.

[45] The agricultural sector of Guatemala's economy consists of two types of producers: numerous small-scale peasant-owned farms in the highlands, and fewer medium- to large-scale operations in the more fertile lowlands.

Larger farms produce export and plantation products like bananas, sugar cane, coffee, and rubber and palm oil.

Sarah Hamilton, Linda Asturias de Barrios, and Brenda Tevalán have stated that despite a traditional patriarchal structure in Guatemala, NTAE production is associated with increased independence and equality between men and women.

[57] Guatemala's western highlands are particularly susceptible to climate change, impacting the region’s predominantly indigenous population of subsistence farmers.

[64] Guatemala's post-civil war efforts to improve electrical access in the countryside have proceeded under the auspices of the Rural Electrification Plan (Spanish: PER), a public-private partnership between the government's Ministry of Education and Mines (Mineduc) and private power companies.

[65] Even when rural users are connected to the grid and pay subsidized rates, they often have difficulty affording electrical appliances, which translates into low power consumption (less than five percent of average US residential usage).

[64] By contrast, only around 8% of high-income rural residents lacked service,[64] demonstrating that affordability plays a role in the accessibility of electrical grids.

[68] A study in Guatemala covering the period 2009 to 2014 found that private construction firms generally have little knowledge of the rights of rural indigenous peoples their projects may be affecting.

[68] Interlocutors from within the government say that there is internal pressure to approve EIAs even if they are performed inadequately,[68] showing that visions of Guatemala's energy future may be overriding the interests of segments of its populace.