Interesting detail: Panama uses the US Dollar as its currency.

Panama also has a local currency called the Balboa, which is pegged one-to-one with the US Dollar, but in fact most transactions are actually handled in actual US Dollars rather than Balboas. Either way, the Balboa and the Dollar go up and down together, meaning OUR inflation is (in theory) exactly the same as the inflation in Panama.

Just as the rate of price inflation varies here from item to item, the same is surely true in Panama and there may be nation-specific factors that are hitting Panamanians harder -- a lower standard of living with less of a cushion to start with is one possibility.