A last-ditch effort by the government of Costa Rica to control the pesky deficit may not work as intended and may also force the appreciation of the United States dollar (USD) against the local currency. The administration of President Luis Guillermo Solis recently pitched an investment idea to the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The idea consisted of a bond package speciall...

The strengthening of the United States dollar (USD) and the weakening of a few international economies are factors creating bargains for North American and European medical tourists. A recent article by Christiana Sciaudone of BloombergBusiness examined how currency devaluation is creating bargains for medical tourists in Brazil: “Danniella Gomes is about to head home to Brasilia from Texas to ge...

The Greenback The currency exchange rate between the United States dollar (USD) and the Costa Rica colón (CRC) in recent days has registered an uptick in favor of the greenback; however, some analysts believe that this is a trend that may not last too long. High trading volumes in the MONEX, a national trading platform that provides direct access to foreign currency exchange (forex) investo...

File image Pointe-Claire, Quebec (marketpressrelease) September 4, 2015 - 1010 103, a Montreal, Canada, US and international long distance calling service provider, recently announced lower international phone rates being offered to call various Central American countries observing their Independence Days. The President of 10 10 103, Alejandro Bitar, said, "Our lower international phone calli...

Source: Banco Central With a fiscal deficit approaching six percent of gross domestic product (GDP), Costa Rica is increasingly looking at tax reform as a viable option. At one point, the administration of President Luis Guillermo Solis hinted at the possibility of increasing enforcement, which many analysts believe is sorely lacking in Costa Rica; alas, such an option is taking a backseat to ...

Wikimedia Commons Panama, 03-JULY-2013 (WireService.co)– 2Bet Bob is pleased to announce that their headquarters have been moved to the country of Panama, due to unexpected red tape in Costa Rica. This move will not affect the excellent customer service which is a feature of the betting site. The pay per head feature allows the company to provide 24-hour betting every day. 2Bet Bob uses the PP...

4Grinz.com San Jose, Costa Rica  (Marketwired - June 30, 2015) - Today's players are looking for the most immersive online casino games that are interactive, sophisticated, and very polished. They want the fun of playing for free with the option of gambling and games should be optimized for tablets and smartphones. 4Grinz.com achieves this and more, offering hundreds of state-of-the-art games ...

The Greenback When the Central Bank of Costa Rica announced its decision to forego the currency exchange bands and allow the United States dollar (USD) to flow with greater freedom against the Costa Rica colón (CRC), many budget-conscious travelers thought that the end of tight monetary intervention would signal a period of affordable vacations in our country. However, that has hardly been the...

Source: Wikimedia Commons A Costa Rican citizen will spend the next three years incarcerated in a federal prison in the United States. Maxim Chukharev is a Russian man of Uzbek ethnicity who arrived in Costa Rica in his late teens and later became a naturalized citizen. He was indicted in 2013 by the United States Attorney General for his participation in the Liberty Reserve case. As previo...

News media outlets in Costa Rica are beginning to provide details on the highly controversial Swiss Leaks scandal involving millions upon millions of dollars stashed away in deposit and investment accounts at the controversial HSBC bank in Switzerland. Allegations about the involvement high-profile business people and politicians were reported by the press in Costa Rica, but initial investigations...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Despite a recent decision by the Central Bank of Costa Rica to allow the United States dollar (USD) to float freely against the colon (CRC), the country’s sovereign debt remains very high while the deficit becomes tougher to manage. As a result, The Costa Rica Star has recently published press releases from Fitch Ratings, which indicate that the sovereign debt outlook...

The Greenback Starting this Monday, February 2nd, the strongest international currency in the world will no longer be subject to the caps and limits imposed by the Central Bank of Costa Rica over the last eight years. Since October 2006, the value of the United States dollar (USD) against the colón (CRC) was controlled by “bandas cambiarias” (exchange bands), which established a floor and ceil...

Azimo Screenshot Azimo, a new money transfer network based in London, is quickly expanding its operations with a very enticing offer for people who send remittances to their families abroad. Azimo operates solely online for the purpose of keeping their overhead low and offer the very reasonable fee of just one euro per transfer. In Costa Rica, the physical (brick-and-mortar) cash pick-up l...

Source: Banco Central NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fitch Ratings has revised the Rating Outlook on Costa Rica's Long-term foreign and local currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) to Negative from Stable and affirmed the IDRs at 'BB+'. The issue ratings on Costa Rica's senior unsecured foreign and local currency bonds have been affirmed at 'BB+'. The Short-term foreign currency IDR has been affir...

Source: Flickr Commons The cost of doing business in Costa Rica is getting a bit more expensive as the national economy adjusts to inflation. For the year 2015, the corporate tax (fee) on active domestic and foreign business entities such as sociedades anonimas (S.A.) and the simpler responsabilidad limitada (S.R.L) has been set at 201,700 colones (about $375 at today’s currency exchange rate)...

Source: JPS A cherished holiday tradition in Costa Rica consists of participating in the madness of the Gordo Navideño, which roughly translates into “Christmas Fat Cat Lottery.” For this holiday season, the jackpot prize of the lottery in Costa Rica paid a cool $10.5 million for whoever held an entero (whole lottery bill), which can be purchased on a fractional basis since each lotto bill hol...

Failure to report income from business operations or from professional services rendered through self-employment activities in Costa Rica could result in up to $80K in penalties. Not all business owners or self-employed professionals are potentially affected by this fine; only those who acquired goods up to $5K in value or who rendered a professional service worth more than $100 throughout the tax...

Los Angeles – Breakout Gaming (BRO), a company with headquarters in San Jose, Costa Rica, is a new budding leader in cryptocurrency technology and game development. The company recently announced the launch of the first destination for online gaming and digital currency with the support of an all-star roster of sponsored players. As of October 15, 2014, Breakout Gaming was six days away from launc...

Silk Road screenshot before seizure. Silk Road. Bitcoin. Liberty Reserve. Ross Ulbricht. Arthur Budovsky. These are the respective names of an alleged online drug marketplace, two virtual currencies and two individuals accused by the United States Justice Department of leading major cybercrime operations. The arrests of these two men were heralded by U.S. prosecutors as significant crackdowns ...

The Costa Rica Star has previously reported extensively on digital currency system Bitcoin. The growing use of digital currency like Bitcoin is worrying Costa Rican authorities, warning that organized crime can make use of it to move millions of dollars without controls. Digital currency, not to be confused with virtual currency, among its various names, is electronic money that acts as alte...

A computer hacker was able to alter the online system of a private bank in Costa Rica to buy and sell dollars at extreme exchange rates, making away with more than ¢200 million colones (US$400,000 dollars) over a period of four months. Francisco Segura, head of the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ), explained that the hacker, who had an account with the bank, was able to change the exch...

Article by Central America Data with insights from La Nacion. The international crisis and exchange rate fluctuations caused the agriculture sector to export 7% less during the first seven months of 2013, when compared to the same period of 2012. The Costa Rican agricultural sector is not experiencing good times. Nacion.com reports: "According to the monthly index of economic activity (M...

Costa Rica scrapped limits on dollar loans on Wednesday as external headwinds and weaker harvests pushed the central bank to cut the country's growth outlook sharply. Central Bank of Costa Rica President Rodrigo Bolanos cut the forecast for economic growth of the Central American nation in 2013 to just 3 percent, which would be the weakest expansion since a 2009 recession. The forecast was 4 pe...

Bitcoin, a controversial digital currency that is being widely adopted in many parts of the world, is not likely to make too much of a splash in Costa Rica. This is a sad fact of reality since the peer-to-peer nature of Bitcoin will probably appeal to many Ticos who do not trust in their Central Bank's ability to balance the value of the national currency against inflation and pressure from other ...

Costa Rica’s central bank is “very likely” to impose more currency controls to stem the flow of capital from developed markets that has driven the colon higher, President Laura Chinchilla said. “It is very likely that the the bank will have to announce some measures on their own in the coming days,” Chinchilla said today in an interview in Davos, Switzerland, where she is attending the World Ec...

A bill is being prepared to impose taxes on money which enters the country seeking to exploit the gap between interest rates in local currency and in dollars. Furthermore President Chinchilla has issued a directive to state banks to stop competing with each other to attract investments from large institutions, such as the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad, the Social Security Department, ...

WASHINGTON | Thu Dec 13, 2012 9:29am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top central banks around the world on Thursday renewed a series of currency swap lines set up during the 2007-2009 financial crisis as a precaution against future market strains. The Federal Reserve said it had extended for another year the dollar swaps with the European Central Bank, Bank o...

I won’t say I was stunned, but I admit to being surprised when I read the following story in Reuters: Panama leader tells Germany he wants to adopt euro. Anybody who follows the news at all has undoubtedly read about the problems in Greece regarding their participation in the European Economic Union, and you probably have heard dire predictions about the future of the euro due to problems i...

High interest rates, the product of the Treasury’s steady increase in financing with debt, is leading banks to seek funds abroad. In the country the average lending rate in dollars is about 11%, considerably higher than in the United States, where the average is 4%. This gap is the result of higher government borrowing in dollars, which has increased its debt in this currency by 165% y...

The content in this article was taken from CostaRicaLaw.com, the best online resource for getting familiar with the laws of Costa Rica. Always retain the advice of a lawyer, however you can educate yourself beforehand. Costa Rica is on the verge of passing two new laws, which will bring about significant changes to the tax structure currently in effect. The two legislative bills have alread...

The current rates for investment in dollars available in Costa Rica represent attractive options- which are scarce right now, compared to the international markets. From a report by Aldesa on its blog Pulso Bursátil: Interest rates internationally in dollars are still at historic lows and the market consensus suggests that this Thursday, the U.S. Federal Reserve will accompany the stat...

The old "cash is king" adage is losing stock in Costa Rica, and banks are cashing in on the new proclivities of Ticos who are charmed by plastic currency, online banking and mobile technologies. According to a comprehensive series of investigative articles on the prominent newspaper La Nacion, Costa Rica is a nation that is ripe for a cashless transformation, much to the delight of payment process...

Fitch Ratings has affirmed Banco de Costa Rica's (BCR) Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) at 'BB+' and Viability Rating (VR) at 'bb+'. A complete list of the rating actions is provided at the end of this press release. BCR's IDRs are driven by the explicit sovereign guarantees for all its liabilities. As stated in the Banking Law (Ley Organica del Sistema Bancario Nacional), all public banks hav...

The economic dynamism of the last half of 2011 and the first of 2012 has generated more demand for loans, particularly in dollars. Dollar loans reported an increase of 16% (17% excluding the currency effect), while loans in colones increased 14%. Mario Rivera, manager of the Banco de Costa Rica, told Nacion.com that the preference for dollar credit is being driven mostly by companies w...

According to an article in La Nacion, all economic activities in Costa Rica continue to grow and the financial services and insurance sectors have grown the most. The good performance of the economy has prompted Costa Rican’s and companies doing business here to seek more credit and exchange currency in higher volumes, According to information released on June 11, 2012 by the Central Bank, e...

At the beginning of 2012, the U.S. dollar (USD) was on track to recover ground lost against the humble Costa Rica colon (CRC) by a healthy margin. Economists and foreign currency analysts still expect a gradual increase on part of the USD against the CRC thanks to several factors; including the certainty that several measures of the Fiscal Reform plan will be implemented in the next few months, an...