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The Ley de Reactivación Económica y Desarrollo Humano (Decreto No. 17-2026) is an omnibus extraordinary-fiscal-measures statute approved by the Congreso Nacional de Honduras and published in La Gaceta No. 37,081 on 27 February 2026. The law is structured around four operative pillars, all explicitly characterised as "extraordinarias, excepcionales y temporales" (extraordinary, exceptional, and temporary) in the preamble:
1. Extraordinary fiscal-incentive measures for productive sectors — targeted relief and stimulus instruments for Honduras's principal export-manufacturing and productive industries, including the textiles-apparel maquila sector (the country's largest export earner), automotive- harness manufacturers, agribusiness exporters, and tourism operators.
2. Exceptional financial-sector and credit measures — provisions addressing the financial intermediation environment, including measures relevant to MIPYMES (micro-small-and-medium enterprises) access to credit.
3. Temporary tax-relief measures — time-limited tax concessions and payment-facilitation instruments targeting the economic reactivation window.
4. Sectoral-stimulus measures — horizontal instruments spanning export manufacturing, agribusiness, tourism, and the MIPYMES sector, consistent with the Castro administration's post-2024-election economic-reactivation legislative programme.
The law also contains provisions limiting State-asset embargoes and conditioning benefit-payment schedules during the reactivation period — a fiscal-space protection mechanism enabling the government to channel freed resources toward stimulus expenditure rather than legacy-debt service.
Decreto No. 17-2026 sits within a two-decree legislative window opened in the first quarter of 2026: companion Decreto No. 2-2026 (6 February 2026, La Gaceta No. 37,065) provides the permanent five-fiscal-period extension of the Régimen de Importación Temporal (RIT), while Decreto No. 17-2026 provides the broader extraordinary-fiscal-package layered on top of the permanent-regime architecture. Together they constitute the Castro administration's operational response to the post-2024-election macroeconomic context: declining FDI competitiveness vis-à-vis Guatemala, El Salvador, and Mexico's IMMEX zone following the 2024 CSJ ZEDE unconstitutionality ruling (filed: 2024-09-20-honduras-csj-zede-unconstitutionality-ruling).
Gildan Activewear) with Honduras-based CMT and full-package manufacturing receive temporary fiscal relief layered atop the permanent RIT extension — reducing the net cost-pressure of sourcing from Honduran operations during the 2026 reshoring-decision window.
Honduran plants supplying North American OEM assembly lines benefit from the multi-sector extraordinary-stimulus architecture.
to the exceptional credit and financial measures, partially offsetting the structural headwinds from ZEDE wind-down and post-pandemic fiscal adjustment.
replacement free-zone framework yet legislated, Decreto 17-2026 + Decreto 2-2026 together function as the operative incentive architecture sustaining Honduras's position in the CAFTA-DR nearshoring corridor.
roadmap (2024), El Salvador's SAR/BTP incentive schemes, and the Dominican Republic's export- zone instruments as part of the broader post-2024 Central America + Caribbean economic- reactivation-and-nearshoring policy stack.
or be renewed indefinitely, as with many LatAm temporary-fiscal-measures statutes.
ZEDE architecture — Decreto 17-2026 is a bridge instrument, not a structural replacement.
independent of the legal framework.