In Puerto Rico, more than 39,000 eligible entities have received financial relief through the Federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Back in June of 2020, the FOMB’s Research and Policy Department published an essay on the importance of small businesses to Puerto Rico’s economy and provided recommendations to the government on how to design a locally based PPP program. This follow-up essay primarily intends to shed light on the distribution of the federal PPP funds in Puerto Rico by industry, geography and size of business in order to identify industries, municipalities, and businesses that were potentially underserved by this program. The insights obtained from this analysis and the experience and lessons learned from the implementation of the federal program should provide valuable information and policy guidance to the Commonwealth on how to implement the local version of the federal PPP program.
