Income inequality is on the rise in Costa Rica.  Despite the fact that Costa Rica has been very successful over the years in lifting the standard of living of the population it has recently seen an increase in income inequality .  The decisions made by leaders after the 1948 revolutio

The President of Costa Rica Luis Guillermo Solis Rivera was elected in May of 2014 with 77.99% of the electoral vote.   He was elected to the Presidency as the candidate for the Citizens Action Party (Partido Acción Ciudadana – PAC) which is the first time this political party h

Those of us that live in Costa Rica at one point or another have consumed dairy products produced by Dos Pnos.  However, many of you probably do not know that Dos Pinos is a member driven farm cooperative.  The actual name is Cooperativa de Productores de Leche R.L. and it was formed

The Costa Rican Ministry of Economy and Commerce recently completed a study about the use of Credit Cards in Costa Rica. According to the study the amount of credit card debt in Costa Rica is 800 billion Colones which is $1.48 billion dollars.  This is an increase of 2.37% from the pr

The Deterioration of Public Finances in Costa Rica The Minister of the Treasury of Costa Rica has recently established a national dialog with a series of presentations regarding the fiscal problems facing Costa Rica and how to consolidate a plan to turn that around. The public finance

Both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have urged Costa Rica to modify its macroeconomic policy to fight growing unemployment and to stimulate production.   The unemployment rate in Costa Rica has been rising and is currently estimated at around 10.4%. When the U

Costa Rica Labor and Employment The following graph shows the unemployment and under employment rate for Costa Rica for selected years. YEAR Unemployment Rate Under Employment Rate 2005 6.6% 5.5% 2006 6.0% 5.2% 2007 4.6% 4.5% 2008 4.9% 3.8% 2009 7.8% 4.9% 2010 7.3% NA Below you see a

Inflation in Costa Rica Costa Rica has tried in the past years to keep the rate of inflation below 5%. The chart below tracks the monthly rate from 2014 to 2016               To put inflation in perspective the following graph compares the inflation

    Costa Rica Speculative Capital and Currency Controls   In the case of Costa Rica a strong local currency is hurting the productivity of the country. The Costa Rican currency the “Colon” is pegged to the U.S. Dollar by way of a managed float whose goal is