U.S. Dollar Offers Panama Stability

Recently, I returned from a brief vacation in Panama. I did not have to change my U.S. dollars for local currency since the U.S. dollar is the legal tender currency there.

Since Panama (with the backing of the U.S. government – almost certainly prompted by President Theodore Roosevelt’s interest in building the Panama Canal) won independence from Colombia in 1903, it has had a mixed hybrid monetary system. Panama introduced the balboa as the official monetary unit in 1904,