The paper money banknote that circulates the most in Costa Rica is the “rojo”, the red 1,000c note worth almost $2.00. Two years ago Costa Rica began making the rojo out of plastic substrate, in order to prolong its life and make it recyclable. In 2021, all Tico folding money will be made out of plastic, except the 50,000c note, which is being phased out of circulation. The rojo has won internatio...

Costa Rica’s Central Bank announced on Wednesday that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved $508 Million in emergency financing for Costa Rica to help alleviate the impact of the coronavirus, COVID-19 pandemic. The five-year loan was granted through the IMF’s Rapid Financing Instrument, and carries a spread of 150 basis points over the IMF’s special drawing rights (SDRs), equal to an ...

BAC Credomatic, Costa Rica’s largest private bank, announced this week that it is closing eleven of its outlets, canceling 187,000 customer credit cards, and laying off 373 of its employees. Many of BAC’s loyal clients have been contacted and told their credit cards will be cancelled within 60 days. Several other changes will be implemented in the coming months, apparently all due to the new law, ...

The price of the US dollar in Costa Rica has been fluctuating for the past few weeks and today if has reached the highest price of the year at 600 colones per dollar at some private and public banks. Some banks still have the price slightly under the 600 colones, BAC San Jose for example sells it at ₡599.00, Banco de Costa Rica and others such as Scotiabank has it at ₡602.00. The new preside...

While in the United States all bills are the same color, in Costa Rica like many other countries the bills are full of color and history. Perhaps you have never really paid attention to the bills, as a matter of fact, it is safe to say that if you ask a group of Costa Ricans the majority will be able to tell you the colors but won’t be able to say whose face is in each bill, or what other impor...

Venezuelan company located in Panama, Cryptobuyer, will install the first Bitcoin ATM in Costa Rica. The cryptocurrency or digital currency released in 2009 has been slowly gaining ground as more and more people get familiar with how it works. The only decentralized digital currency it uses person to person technology without the interference of a central authority. Each bitcoin is worth a c...

The Costa Rican Chamber of Industry (CICR) is offering a professional training session on detecting false bills later this month. On Saturday, June 24, 2017, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., those wishing to learn the proper techniques for recognizing false U.S. dollar bills, false Costa Rican colón bills, and/or false Euro bills, can partake in this unique and helpful training. The industry recommend...

The U.S. dollar continues to gain strength against the Costa Rica colón with a 4.1 point rise over the weekend, according to figures published by the Central Bank of Costa Rica (BCCR). Monday's dollar-colón exchange rate of sale averaged ¢590.57 after strong currency trading, reported the country's business daily El Financiero. The purchase exchange rate stood at ¢577.98. The last time such ...

This note summarizes preliminary findings and recommendations of the IMF mission that visited Costa Rica during May 2-15, 2017. The mission is grateful for the high quality and openness of the discussions and for the cooperation and hospitality of the Costa Rican authorities and private sector. I. Recent Developments 1. Both output and growth are at potential, while inflation has reemerged...

In the first four months of the year the price of the dollar on the Monex wholesale market has increased almost 2 percent, according to financial reports. At the beginning of the year, the price of the U.S. currency was 556.06 colones to the dollar, but on Tuesday, May 2 the day closed at 566.97 colones to the dollar, a gain of 10 colones in only four months. "In the banks' windows, the refe...

The Costa Rican Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce (MEIC) joins an international campaign in March to increase awareness of consumer fraud, and ways to protect yourself, whether online or otherwise. This year's theme is Internet fraud, one of the most common fraudulent business practices today. Various online ploys can compromise your personal information that then allows access to your...

Wall Street closed with strong gains on Wednesday with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), the main market indicator, rising 1.45 percent and ending the day above 21,000 for the first time in history in the wake of President Donald Trump's address to a joint session of Congress. All the major indexes moved into record territory, with the DJIA up 303.31 points to 21,115.55 at the close of t...

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the New York Stock Exchange's blue-chip index, closed above 20,000 for the first time in its history on Wednesday, while two other leading stock market indexes - the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite - both set new record highs. The Dow closed at 20,068.51, up 0.78 percent, while the S&P 500 finished up 0.80 percent at 2,298.37 and the Nasdaq climbed 0.9...

By Wendy Anders The annual Big Mac Index published by The Economist revealed its most recent data on the fast food product Thursday. And, not surprisingly, here in Costa Rica, we pay a relatively high price for McDonald’s emblematic meal. According to the index, a big mac in Costa Rica costs 2,250 colones, which is $4.06 at the current exchange rate of 554.33 colones to the U.S. dollar. ...

By Wendy Anders An ATM skimming device being installed in the card slot, photo from Facebook for illustrative purposes. Over the past four months, bank officials in Costa Rica have discovered at least 20 skimming devices used to steal data from ATM users' cards. Rodney Jiménez, spokesman for the Costa Rican Banking Association (ABC, in Spanish), said the figure is worrying, as it shows t...

By Wendy Anders The Ministry of Finance (Hacienda) announced yesterday they would grant an exceptional one-time extension this year for tax filers in light of the complications many faced due to Hurricane Otto’s flooding in numerous parts of Costa Rica last week. Instead of November 30, the last day to file returns this year is Monday, December 5, giving filers an extra weekend to put togeth...

By Wendy Anders Last Wednesday August 10 at Germany’s Federal Foreign Ministry Office, Costa Rica and Germany celebrated the ratification of the establishment of legal instruments as part of an agreement to eliminate double taxation of income and assets, stated Costa Rica’s Ministry of Foreign Relations in a press release Friday. The agreement aims to provide clear guidelines for both co...

Source: Sylvania One grumbling commonly expressed by North American expats residing in Costa Rica is related to their monthly electricity bills. Not only do they assert that they pay more in Costa Rica than they used to pay in Loafers Glory, North Carolina or in Dildo Harbour Newfoundland; they also assume that their new monthly bill has to be the most expensive in the world. The dubious re...

Source: Wikimedia Commons A common gripe heard among North American expats and tourists in Costa Rica is their disappointment at not being able to exert their purchasing power in a Third World Country. The constant nagging about how expensive Costa Rica appears to be often results in a less-than-pleasant quality of life experience, particularly for expats on a fixed income and tourists whos...

Sharemoney.com Sharemoney, Omnex Group's online money transfer service, is expanding services to include money transfers to Costa Rica. Sharemoney has been facilitating money transfers from the United States to countries all over the world for more than 25 years, and this expansion continues the goal of making it easier to send money worldwide.  Sharemoney's mission is to aid people who live i...

Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior, S.A. (“Bladex” or “the Bank”; NYSE: BLX) announced the recent closing of a US$85 million, three year, syndicated loan facility in favor of Banco BAC San José, S.A. (“BAC San José”), the largest privately-owned bank in Costa Rica. BAC San José is a subsidiary of BAC Credomatic Inc., a leading Central American banking group with operations in Costa Rica...

Cartoon by Clay Jones The European Union leaders have agreed that Brexit is irreversible in a summit where accusations were exchanged on both sides about who bore responsibility for the decision, and pressure was exerted on London to activate the divorce process as soon as possible. British Prime Minister David Cameron said after attending his last European Council summit that he would have...

By Wendy Anders Cleaning out your closets might provide you with some trade opportunities; bartering, human’s oldest form of economic transaction has gone digital. A new App, available for both iOS and Android, facilitates bartering in Costa Rica. Over the past four months the platform has aided close to 6,000 transactions. “Su Canje” currently has some 7,000 App users and over 22,000 lik...

Source: Heineken Despite volatile global markets and growing security issues, organizations continue to leverage global expansion strategies to remain competitive and to grow. Yet, few organizations are prepared for the challenges world events have on their business, including the impact on cost of expatriate packages. Mercer’s 22nd annual Cost of Living Survey finds that factors including ...

The unpopular Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) of the United States has set off a rash of similar legislation around the world, and Costa Rica has been eager to adopt these international asset reporting treaties, which many taxpayers consider overreaching and in violation of financial privacy. The Costa Rica Star has reported on FATCA numerous times, and in September 2014 we reported ...

HINGHAM, MA--(Marketwired - May 24, 2016) -  DigitalX Limited is pleased to announce that Telefónica Internacional S.A.U. ("Telefónica") is the Company's first strategic partner in Latin America following the successful integration of the DigitalX AirPocket App into Telefónica's network. The mobile phone giant signed a marketing, distribution and sales agreement with DigitalX, which was announc...

The Greenback IMF Media Release - On May 16, 2016, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the Article IV consultation with Costa Rica. Costa Rica bounced back quickly from the 2008–09 global crisis, but growth, despite picking up in the last two years to 3.75 percent, has stayed below trend, while macro vulnerabilities, mainly from the weak fiscal position, h...

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Leslie R. Caldwell, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, announced that ARTHUR BUDOVSKY, 42, was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court to 20 years in prison for running a massive money laundering enterprise through his company Liberty Reserve, a virtual currency once used...

Wikimedia Comons Caracas, Apr 22 (EFE; beer context by The Costa Rica Star).- Residents of Venezuela are hunkering down for a long summer without beer and with diminished electricity. Venezuela's Electric Energy Minister Luis Motta Dominguez has announced the start of electricity rationing next Monday due to the drought affecting the entire country, and which will remain in effect for 40 da...

FreeStockPhotos.biz SAO PAULO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Global banks' departures from Latin America will go on as they attempt to improve their return on capital by changing strategies and lowering their exposure to the risk presented in some Latin American markets, Fitch Ratings says. Citigroup's Brazilian and Argentinean retail banking operations are the latest units for sale that exemplify this tre...

OECD News Release - 15/02/16 - Costa Rica has made impressive economic, social and environmental progress, but further institutional and policy reforms will be necessary to ensure stronger and more inclusive growth, according to the first-ever OECD Economic Assessment of Costa Rica. ‌ The Assessment, presented in San José today by OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría and Costa Rican President L...

Flickr Commons U.S. Dept of Justice Press Release - Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Leslie R. Caldwell, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, announced today that ARTHUR BUDOVSKY pled guilty to running a massive money laundering enterprise in connection with his operation of Liberty Reserve, a virtual cur...

Source; Banco Central de Costa Rica NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fitch Ratings has affirmed Costa Rica's Long-term foreign- and local-currency IDRs at 'BB+'. The Rating Outlook is Negative. 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 affirmed at 'B' and the Country Ceiling at 'BBB-'...

Wikimedia Commons The leading provider of foreign currency in the United Kingdom recently named Australia, Costa Rica, Iceland, Vietnam and Peru as being among the top vacation hotspots for 2016 in terms of exchange leverage. The strength of the British pound sterling looks set to play a pivotal role in holiday destination choice according to the Holiday Money Report 2016 from Post Office T...

FreeStockPhotos.biz The looming economy crisis in Latin America is becoming more apparent with new reports from Mexico and Venezuela. The national currency of Mexico showed signs of retail weakness as global markets plummeted due to concerns about reduced growth of the Chinese economy, and the price of crude oil produced in Venezuela, an OPEC member nation, fell well below $30. The followin...

Source; Flickr Commons Since its launch in December 2014, The "Know Your Customer" (KYC) Registry has been adopted by more than 100 financial institutions in Latin America to complement existing compliance programs. In several jurisdictions across the region, the Registry has been endorsed by either a Central Bank or financial communities, including the Dominican Republic, Panama, Costa Rica a...

Desyfin office in Grecia LUXEMBOURG, December 17, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Sustainability | Finance | Real Economies SICAV - SIF (SFRE, pronounced Sapphire) has made its first investments totalling just under USD 10 million in Banco Vision (Paraguay) and Financiera Desyfin (Costa Rica), in line with its strategy of advancing social, environmental and economic development by providing capital to ba...

NEW YORK & SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Following its peer review of the Costa Rican State-owned banks, Fitch Ratings took rating actions on the following entities: --Banco Nacional de Costa Rica (BNCR); --Banco de Costa Rica (BCR); --Banco Popular y de Desarrollo Comunal (BPDC). Fitch has published Rating Action Commentaries (RACs) for each of these banks, which are...

Flickr Commons Starting January 2016, all credit and debit cards in Costa Rica must be compliant with the smart chip and PIN technology known as EMV, which stands for Electron-MasterCard-Visa, an international initiative to prevent financial fraud at the consumer level. According to a recent report filed by Krissia Chacon Jimenez of business weekly El Financiero, the Central Bank of Costa R...

Source: Tiendas Ekono The United States may have created the shopping craze known as Black Friday, but retailers in Costa Rica have up the ante with Black November, a month-long celebration to consumption that starts a few weeks ahead of the Friday after Thanksgiving Day. One of the first merchants to roll out Black November in Costa Rica is the department store chain Ekono, a national disc...