Costa Rica: Economic momentum gathers in September
Annual economic growth in cyclically-adjusted terms accelerated to 2.0% in September from August’s revised 1.7% reading (previously reported: +1.6% year-on-year). Commenting on September’s reading, Rodrigo Cubero, the governor of the Central Bank of Costa Rica, said: “There are four consecutive months of recovery in the economic activity index, which suggests that it has started to recover” from a prolonged period of sluggishness.
September’s acceleration was in part due to a continued recovery in the agriculture sector, output from which increased at a faster pace in September than in August, after decreasing consistently for several months leading up to and including July. Moreover, output from the ICT sector continued to grow robustly in September and, although it continued to decrease heavily, output from the construction sector decreased at the slowest pace in five months in September.
In month-on-month terms adjusted for working days, economic activity increased 0.3% in September, matching August’s reading. Annual average growth, meanwhile, slowed to 1.6% in September from 1.7% in August.