Costa Rica: Economic activity growth slows for seventh month running
February 11, 2019
Cyclically-adjusted annual economic growth slowed to 1.8% in December from 1.9% in November, representing the lowest growth rate since December 2013. This is according to the monthly index of economic activity (IMAE, Indice Mensual de Actividad Económica) published by the Central Bank of Costa Rica.
Growth in December was weighed on by contractions in the mining and quarrying, and agriculture, forestry and fishing sectors. On the other hand, economic activity growth was supported by solid readings in the ICT and financial services sectors.
In month-on-month terms when adjusted for working days, economic activity increased 0.2% in December, as it did in November. Year-on-year annual average growth slowed to 2.7% in December from 2.8% in November.
Costa Rica GDP Forecast
The Central Bank of Costa Rica forecasts economic growth of 3.2% in 2019 and 3.0% in 2020. FocusEconomics Consensus Forecast panelists expect growth of 2.8% in 2019, which is down 0.1 percentage points from last month’s forecast, and 3.0% in 2020.
Author: Edward Gardner, Economist
