Between January and October 2018, the prices of goods and services in Costa Rica registered an accumulated variation of 1.38%, according to the most recent data published by the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC).
Inflation or increase in the general price level is estimated in the country through the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which is calculated monthly based on the variations of a basket of goods and services made up of 315 items.
In the tenth month of the year, the variation was 0.37% driven by increases in the prices of the Transport and Entertainment sector. The elements with the greatest variation were vehicles tour packages and urban buses. On the other hand, electricity, pizza and onions went down.
Of the total of the basket reviewed by the INEC, 51% of the articles increased in price, 36% decreased and 13 did not show any variation.
In October of the last ten years, the highest inter-annual variation occurred in 2014 with 5.70%; while 2015 registered the only negative year-on-year change (-0.86%).
Year-on-year inflation (November 2017 – October 2018) was 2.03% just within the Central Bank’s target range for this year, which ranges from 2% to 4%.
Recent increases in the exchange rate and external prices have pushed inflation expectations upwards. To prevent the price level from exceeding 4% in 2019, last week the Central Bank decreed an increase in its monetary policy rate to 5.75%.