Quick-service restaurants (QSR) make up one of the most active and potentially lucrative business sectors in Costa Rica. As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star, Tico consumers have an ongoing love affair with fast food, particularly when some level of novelty is involved. Enter Cosi, a United States-based restaurant chain specializing in the fast-casual dining segment. This company has gott...

When it comes to mobile communications and paid television markets, Costa Rica is poised to grow and foster a solid landscape for business competition. Such is the determination of a new report being offered by Research and Markets. This new report is titled Costa Rica: Pending LTE Auction Will Help Balance Mobile Operators' Spectrum Holdings, Boosting Competition, and it was produced by Pyramid R...

A medical device outsourcing firm based in Galway, province of Connacht, has acquired the assets of a foreign firm operating in Costa Rica that could result in additional jobs for their manufacturing facility in Heredia, a municipality where outsourcing is a major industry. According to a recent news article by Gavin Daly of the Sunday Times of London, Creganna, a Galway-based medtech group, is li...

Black Friday in the US. Source: Wikimedia Commons On Friday evening, traffic jams near major shopping centers located within the Greater San Jose Metropolitan Area (Spanish acronym: GAM) served as a reminder to drivers in Costa Rica that Black November is now in full effect ahead of Black Friday. Exacerbating the situation was the fact that mid-month payment for most workers took place this Fr...

First there was the Big Mac Index, then the Casado Index and now the Arroz con Pollo (Chicken Rice) Index. Costa Rica has no shortage of innovative and highly informal methods of pointing out the numerous shortcomings of the national economy. As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star, our country is not as expensive as the Big Mac Index, created by The Economist, suggests. When it comes to pur...

Following an official staff visit (known as a mission) by representatives from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to Costa Rica, the mission's preliminary findings have been published with the consent of our country's authorities on finance and economics. You can read the entire text of the Concluding Statement at the IMF website; The Costa Rica Star is pleased to bring you the following highli...

UN-Cruise Ship La Pinta Un-Cruise Adventures is a specialty line of cruise ships that emphasize in luxury and adventure on smaller vessels. This unique cruise line is the recipient of the 2016 Reader's Choice Award by Porthole Cruise Magazine, and CEO Dan Blanchard took the opportunity to announce the inclusion of Costa Rica as a destination for the 2016 cruise season. Here's the official pres...

Economists and business leaders gathered this Monday at the San Jose Palacio Hotel to discuss a topic that is in the minds of millions in Costa Rica and others with financial ties to this country: ¿Hacia dónde vamos?  (Where Are We Headed?). The 17 experts agreed that this nation is in deep economic crisis, but they also agreed that not all hope is lost. This business forum was hosted by Summa Con...

Just one of the many firms reducing their presence in Costa Rica Economists and public officials who oversee business and industry in Costa Rica are extremely worried about the ongoing exodus of foreign firms that are moving their operations to other countries. This bleeding of capital has been taking place over the last few years, and it became exacerbated in recent days with the announcement...

Fuerza Publica, the national police force of Costa Rica, recently reported the arrest of two suspected smugglers on the border with Panama. The men were driving separate cars, but they appeared to be working together in an effort to illicitly introduce 240 bottles and cans of beer to Costa Rica. Of special note within the nefarious cargo: Seven cases of Milwaukee's Best Premium, proudly manufa...

Source: Bing Creative Commons Despite efforts by the Central Bank to keep inflation at bay, the consumer price index (CPI) in Costa Rica reached its highest level in six years during August. According to a report by Marcos Gonzalez of La Prensa Libre, the current CPI stood at 5.44 percent last month, up from 5.09 percent in July. Furthermore, this is the second month the CPI escapes the contai...

Light traffic at a shopping center in San Carlos. Source: Wikimedia Commons Despite public opinion polls showing an acceptable level of approval for President Luis Guillermo Solis during his first trimester in office, most people in Costa Rica are feeling the inflationary blues and do not think that the economic situation on a national and personal level will improve soon. According to a recen...

Source: ICT Ever since the collapse of the financial markets in 2008 gave way to a period of economic crisis and recession in many developed countries, tourism industry analysts in Costa Rica have observed a sharp drop in the amount of money spent by foreign visitors. A couple of years ago, the same analysts noticed an uptick in the amount of money spend by Costa Ricans exploring their own cou...

Source: Getty Commons The BBQ grilling season in Costa Rica coincides with the holidays and the beginning of the busy tourist season. Although there has been a recent push towards greater diffusion of outdoor grilling culture in Costa Rica thanks to events sponsored by Weber and the promotion of higher-quality cuts, skyrocketing beef prices are prompting many families in Costa Rica to put away...

Source: Flickr CC Is it more expensive to live in Costa Rica than in Mexico, Peru or Venezuela? A recent report by national TV network Teletica interviewed three well-traveled expats who are certainly not feeling the Pura Vida when it comes to their personal finances, and their stories confirm the ongoing trend of skyrocketing prices in consumer goods and services. A cursory look into the situ...

Journalism is a crowded career field in Costa Rica Biology, journalism and physical therapy are the three least-promising fields of study in Costa Rica. According to a report by daily tabloid La Teja, hundreds of biologists, reporters and physical therapists have given up looking for work in their chosen professional fields and have instead turned to low paying positions in telemarketing, cler...

The elegant WTTC data explorer The World Travel and Tourism Travel Council (WTTC), a forum for business leaders in this important global sector, recently released its 2014 economic impact report. Among the highlights of the report, which is presented in a gorgeous interactive Web application featuring an Earth globe that you can manipulate right on your browser, Costa Rica's already sizable co...

This Sora Mountain estate overlooks the Pacific Ocean in Panama. As the cost of living in Costa Rica continues its steady and relentless climb, the real estate market is responding in sync. In 2012, the Inter-American Development Bank labeled San Jose as the city with the most expensive real estate in Latin America, and luxury housing construction in Guanacaste shows no signs of slowing down. ...

Source: Wikimedia Commons In the 21st century, the province of Guanacaste has become a land of contradictions. Known for many decades as the “forgotten province” of Costa Rica, Guanacaste these days is a land of luxury yachts, extravagant resorts, impressive mansions, ultra high-tech aerospace firms, top-notch research universities, and excruciating unemployment. It is in Guanacaste that we...

Source: Wikimedia Commons On October 1st, the Congress of the United States of America, through political inaction and disagreement, might end up “shutting down the government.” What this means is that a number of non-essential services will not be provided until Congress agrees on a budget resolution for the next fiscal year. For Costa Rica, the U.S. government shutting down would cause a cou...

Los Suenos. Source: Wikimedia Commons A significant drop in sports fishing tourism and the global financial crisis are to blame for causing investors to shy away from marina projects in Costa Rica. According to a recent report by business journalist Ana Cristina Camacho Sandoval of El Financiero, out of 21 marina projects that filed for permits in 2007, only nine remain -and they are all stall...

Cheaper than San Jose? Edmonton. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Comparing the cost of living across international regions is a popular activity among those who seek to retire abroad. Until a couple of years ago, Costa Rica appeared in just about every list of top places to retire -all of which considered low cost of living a priority. That no longer seems to be the case. Popular consumer financ...

Source: Flickr CC In the early 21st century, the bed & breakfast (B&B) lodging trend became a cottage industry in Costa Rica and gave hope to families whose properties had the potential to attract tourists looking for cozy, alternative accommodations. More than a decade later, many B&B operators are closing their doors in Costa Rica, and the rest are weighing their options in the m...

The Big Mac Index is published by The Economist as an informal way of measuring the purchasing power parity (PPP) between two currencies and provides a test of the extent to which market exchange rates result in goods costing the same in different countries. It “seeks to make exchange-rate theory a bit more digestible”. The index takes its name from the Big Mac, a hamburger sold at McDonald’s r...

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...

Wikimedia Commons Recent news from the Phoenix Business Journal revealed that a Costa Rica-based investment firm purchased more than $12 million in cash to acquire an office complex in Arizona's capital. In October, The Costa Rica Star reported on the acquisition of North American Breweries Holdings by Florida Ice and Farm Company, S.A., a transaction valued at $388 million, also in cash. The t...

MANAGUA | Mon Nov 12, 2012 8:41pm EST MANAGUA (Reuters) - Nicaragua has begun talks with the International Monetary Fund over a financial aid package that aims to bolster efforts to reform taxes and pensions, the country's central bank president said on Monday. Alberto Guevara, president of the central bank of...

The President of Costa Rica Laura Chinchilla criticized state-owned commercial banks for being directly responsible for the high interest rates plaguing the economy. Nacion.com reports that "President Laura Chinchilla recently said that Costa Rican public banks "are over stepping their hand" with interest rates in colones which are hitting Costa Rican’s wallets." Chinchilla said "it is the p...

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...

Following the exchange of notes of ratification, the Free Trade Agreement between the two nations will become effective on 19 October 2012. A press release from the Foreign Ministry of Nicaragua reads: An exchange of letters on the bilateral Nicaragua-Chile protocol, a Free Trade Agreement between Chile and Central America, was held this morning between the foreign minister, Samuel Santo...

The Ad Astra Rocket Laboratory located in Earth University at La Flor, has a new guest. They are hosting a full sized model of the VF-200 engine, the same Franklin Chang and his team are building to fly to the International Space Station in 2015. The prototype hangs just above the site that links to a model of the Aurora platform, a structure designed and built in Costa Rica to connect the m...

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...

While the northern pacific coast of Costa Rica has been quite popular amongst tourism visitors for a long time, the Limon region has remained stagnated and undeveloped with poor infrastructure and a small number of real estate projects, but that seems to be changing as the country is applying the necessary measures in order to ensure that the province will experience the optimal growth necessary t...