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A new tax reform bill is bringing up for discussion which sectors of the economy need these stimuli kept in place and which do not. The bill on a new tax reforms seeks to incorporate new control measures for public expenditure and to implement changes to the tax system. With the new reform, the country's tax burden would rise from the current 13.7% to 15.5% of production and could grow to 19...

Costa Rican consumer prices rose the most in three years after government regulators let energy costs rise in Central America’s second-biggest economy. Costa Rican consumer prices climbed 1.31 percent in January, the largest monthly increase since Jan. 2010, the national statistics agency said in an e-mailed statement today. Inflation quickened to 5.74 percent from a year earlier, the fastest s...

Culture is what remains when one has forgotten everything. If in Costa Rica we can speak of an ancestral culture, it is undoubtedly that of corn. Although we have already forgotten many of our best traditions, we must remember and conserve something proper and essential: we are children of the corn. For this reason, and the same as we did earlier with the cart, the oxherd or with calypso music,...

Rosie Heindl, a volunteer working with the auction, says they have collected over one hundred donated items for the 5th Annual Save The Howlers Auction that will be held at the Harbor Reef Restaurant this Friday February 1st. “We have many practical items, from restaurant gift certificates to pool supplies,” said Heindl. “We also have massages, surf lessons, house rentals, art and jewelry, and ...

A brand new TV and DVD player are now just charred pieces of metal. The fridge is still standing but it is ruined. All that is left are ashes in what used to be 89-year-old Argentina Matarrita Arroyo’s home in Panama in the district of Samara, just past Barco Quebrado. On Thursday, January 31, in the early hours of the morning, Argentina’s son, Alvaro Matarrita Arroyo, 67, went through his no...

Over the next nine months the Central Bank of Costa Rica will slow credit growth to the private sector, keeping it at below 9%. Posted under a publication of the Macroeconomic Program for 2013-2014 the measure is temporary and intends to prevent the formation of a credit bubble caused by excess liquidity. During 2012 private sector credit grew by 14.2%. The Costa Rican Banking Association (A...

They often arrive in bad shape — hit by cars, zapped by high-voltage wires as they climb trees, or orphaned because superstitious locals have killed their moms. But life gets sweet once the gates open at Costa Rica's sloth sanctuary, one of few in the world specializing in the study of these famously sedentary and solitary mammals. The youngest even get stuffed animals to hug in incubators...

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (February 3, 2013) - For a team that just won a significant competition, Costa Rica did not have the luxury of time to savor its triumph. That's the way it goes on occasion in international football. There is always another game, another tournament and another mountain to climb. Last Sunday, the Ticos captured the UNCAF Copa Centroamericana - Central America's biennial cha...

Meet the motivated, energetic women who have been providing scholarships, creating public school libraries and supplying textbooks to Costa Rican students for dozens of years. Two diverse opportunities to engage with them while enjoying one of our annual neighborhood gatherings! February 11 for a morning of physical and mental stretching with an active demonstration of Tai Chi, followed by...

As the NFL calendar season comes to an end with Super Bowl XLVII on February 3rd, the 2013 National Championship calendar season of the American Football Federation of Costa Rica (FEFACR) will have just kicked off. The league is entering into its 5th season as an organized sport, recognized by the Costa Rican Sports & Recreation Association (ICODER) and the International Federation of American Foo...

Have you ever had the dream of traveling around the world and seeing some of the things you have only been able to experience through travel magazines, movies or websites? My Destination has gone global to give you an opportunity to enter a contest that can make your dream turn into the Biggest Baddest Bucket List reality! Travel six continents visiting the 35 destinations from your bu...

Enjoy a night out with friends! Good music, a little laughter, maybe some dancing! All provided by the diversely talented members of The Little Theatre Group and producer Barry Slutskin. 7:30pm Friday 8th February in the Shakespeare Bar (Avenida 2, Calle 28). This will be an evening of lighthearted cabaret, that will feature musicians: Jim Trollinger, Silvia Schneegans, Mati Seth Bertucci, ...

The province of Guanacaste, an area where the winds blow strong, is hot for investors interested in wind farms, reports Nacion.com. In Tilaran, Guanacaste, there are already five power plants with wind turbines in operation. One is owned by the state run Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), and the other four are owned by private businessmen. Jovel Arias, mayor, said that because...

A Costa Rican journalist avoided a libel lawsuit after retracting accusations she made against the brother of President Laura Chinchilla, Adrián Chinchilla, in an August 2012 article published in the newspaper La Nación. Following the retraction, the court decided it was unnecessary to try journalist Vanessa Loaiza for libel since she withdrew her claim before the legal procedures against her c...

Costa Rican researchers are pioneering 'aquatic agriculture' — the method of growing crops on freshwater lakes and reservoirs — to boost food security in the developing world. The technique involves creating floating rafts on which vegetables, grains and flowers can be grown. Terrestrial crops such as grains and vegetables have their roots directly in the water or can be potted, with water bein...

Industrialists say they are at a disadvantage in competing with a country that offers great benefits to its companies, and have made calls to respect most of the sector, which opposes the treaty. A statement from the Chamber of Industries of Costa Rica (CICR) reads: Facing the fourth round of negotiations for a trade agreement with Colombia Industrialists demand respect for exclusions req...

Why not entrust a binational group of private businessmen the development of a region where poverty is currently the only truth? EDITORIAL Recent statements by a former minister of Costa Rica explain much of the underdevelopment of Central American countries. Under the heat of chauvinism and patriotism put forward by leaders during electoral campaigns and by officials who are simply not q...

A UFO was filmed by a pilot flying over Costa Rica, video posted to Youtube on January 30th, 2013. The silver, rounded orb flew past his airplane at an incredible rate of speed. What is it? The video below, posted to YouTube, is a Costa Rican TV broadcast report in Spanish. But the translation in the description tells the story. The pilot was filming out the window with an iPhone wh...

The repair of damaged infrastructure in La Anexion Hospital in Nicoya, after the earthquake of September 5, 2012, has progressed 40% and it is estimated that it could be ready in May. The information was provided by Dr. Jorge Fonseca Renauld, Director of the medical center and the engineer Danilo Monge, Director of Special Projects of the CCSS, who said that fortunately the work has not affecte...

Costa Rica's government will submit to lawmakers in 2014 a fiscal reform bill to boost consumption taxes and cut the deficit as it seeks to tap global debt markets, the country's finance minister said on Tuesday. President Laura Chinchilla's administration will ask lawmakers to scrap the country's sales tax and replace it with a higher-rate value-added tax (VAT), Finance Minister Edgar Ayales t...

Foreign capital inflows have rushed into Costa Rica too quickly, sparking the government’s efforts to weaken Latin America’s third-best performing currency this year, Vice President Luis Liberman said. The government is seeking congressional approval to raise deposit requirements on investors and boost taxes on interest paid abroad after inflows rose as global investors search for higher yields...

International debutants as late as 1995, Belize only made their first appearance in the Copa Centroamericana two years later. Since then they have always finished last in the regional tournament, organised by the Union Centroamericana de Futbol (UNCAF), the governing body of Central American football. In all that time Los Jaguares failed to win a single game in the competition. This unwanted re...

In Costa Rica the strong growth of retail space within large malls is leading to transfers, remodeling, and new tactics to attract tenants, and an increase in the number of vacant units. Elfinancierocr.com reports that "The ‘theft’ of tenants by new malls and the exodus of other brands to smaller formats are just two of the effects of the boom in malls in the country." "One of the immediate ...

Haiti President Michel Martelly met this weekend with Costa Rica President Laura Chinchilla on the sidelines of the EU-CELAC Summit in Chile. The talks focused on several topics, including environmental issues, according to a statement from the National Palace, including proposed environmental cooperation between Haiti and Costa Rica. Costa Rica is currently the rotating Chairman of the Cent...

We walk from the train station toward a Guatemalan restaurant where we decide to have breakfast. It’s 11 a.m. on a summer day in August, a little late to be eating the first meal of the day, but Sandra, Miguel and Robert requested the day off of work to be with us, and they decided that before opening the doors to their private life, we should get to know each other briefly. The restaurant is c...

Cuban singer-songwriter Silvio Rodriguez will perform a concert on April 12 in Costa Rica's Ricardo Saprissa Stadium, after 23 years of absence from the national scene, the organizers reported here today. According to companies Ariel Rivas Entertainment and Evenpro, Rodriguez, composer of over 500 songs, will arrive in Costa Rica with a team of about 25 people, including eight musicians who wil...

MILDLY distressed and hopelessly tangled, these birds look like the poster children for some environmental tragedy of our own making. In reality, they are the face of modern ornithology. Todd Forsgren, a photographer based in Baltimore, Maryland, is fascinated by the long and intertwined history of birds and art. The two meet in the mist nets researchers use to trap Costa Rica's wild birds, whi...

Driving from the United States to Costa Rica is an adventure best undertaken with patience, a sense of humor, and about two weeks of free time. From the U.S. border at Brownsville, Texas to the Nicaraguan-Costa Rican border at Penas Blancas, the distance totals almost 2,300 miles. The drive can be made in nine or ten days, but in order to enjoy this trans-cultural journey, it’s best to budget ...

If you thought that 2012 was a year moved in the business world, pay attention to what is said about 2013, because the expectations are quite ambitious. This is not just about the arrival of new industrial enterprises but also the commercial sector, tourism and real estate, including shopping centers, office centers, shops, supermarkets, restaurants and others. The Central Bank estimates tha...

The Costa Rica Star recently reported about America Movil moving into Costa Rica to offer Television services with a 15 year license. America Movil, one of the leading telecom carriers in South America, has recently gained a 15-year license to market its cable television in Costa Rica. The multi-year agreement also has a renewal option for another ten years, depending on the company's profitabi...

Both Costa Rica and Chile suffer from high rates of deforestation, which means both can earn carbon credits by saving their rainforest and reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD). For that to happen in a way that is recognized under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), however, the countries must first develop national accounting procedure...

If you own a local business, you want new customers, and you don't want to spend any unnecessary funds to accomplish this. Making a calculated decision on how to spend your advertising dollars shouldn't be taken lightly. It's easy to put an advertisement on Facebook, and target a specific demographic in Costa Rica, but that does not help you with permanent ongoing search engine optimization...

This Central American country has become a strategic location for international companies to develop new forms of information technology. The data provided by the International Monetary Fund on the economy of Costa Rica reflects strength and growth. This small Central American country has seen its economy rise this year by 4.8%, one point more than speculated in January this year, and it is exp...

The Constitutional Chamber of Costa Rica has rejected a petition against a series of economic sanctions for insurance companies defined in the law that regulates the market. ElfinancieroCR.com reports that the action was raised on May 7, 2012, by the Office of the Ombudsman. According to the arguments presented by the chief of the Ombudsman, Ofelia Taitelbaum: "Some clauses of Articl...

The Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, and the president of Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla, held a meeting this past week in Santiago de Chile in which they expressed their desire to expand the business relationship between the two countries. Both considered relations optimal, according to Spanish sources, but still have enormous potential. In that sense, Chinchilla thanked Spain for its d...

Once abundant in the Nicoya Peninsula, the Ara Macaw (lapa roja) population has decreased over the years, but efforts are now being made to help the macaws recover. Nelson Marin Mora, director of the Tempisque Conservation Area with Minaet in Nicoya, said there are now very few macaws in the peninsula, primarily because people have captured the vibrantly colorful birds to sell as pets. Ho...

Aloe Vera is one of the most useful and easy to grow plants. It has been called “a physician in a pot” since it can be used to treat a very broad range of illnesses. The gelatin inside the leaf can be used to treat most skin problems: burns, sunburn, insect bites, cuts, bruises, sprains, eczema, psoriasis, fungal infections and acne. In addition, it is a terrific hair conditioner. But aloe is...

The board of Costa Rica's telecoms regulator Sutel will select the number portability administrator on 30 January, local newspaper El Financiero reports. The administrator will be selected by Sutel, because the Portability Commission has not reached an unanimous verdict in the recent tender which included bids from Teletech, Telcordia, El Corte Ingles and Porting XS. Costa Rica’s Portability Co...

Host Costa Rica won the 2013 Copa Centroamericana with a 1-0 win over Honduras in the final. The match featured seven MLS players -- three for the Ticos and four for the Catrachos, who open the Hexagonal Feb. 6 at home against the USA. Giancarlo Gonzalez scored the game's lone goal in the 37th minute to give the Ticos their seventh UNCAF title. Real Salt Lake’s Alvaro Saborio and Portlan...