In May, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) registered a negative monthly variation of 0.11%, mainly explained by the prices of the Transport sector, and Food and non-alcoholic beverages.
From a report by the National Institute of Statistics and Census of Costa Rica (INEC):
Of the 315 goods and services that make up the “basic consumer basket” (canasta basica in Spanish), 42% decreased in price, 45% increased in price and 13% did not change.
During May the goods and services that showed the greatest negative effect were: tomatos, internet services and tour packages. On the other hand, gasoline, automobiles and urban buses were among the main items with the greatest positive effect.
When analyzing the percentage changes in the prices of the twelve groups that make up the index, seven groups showed decreases in their prices.
In May of the last ten years, the highest year-on-year variation was in 2009 with 9.52%; while in 2016 the only negative year-on-year change was registered (-0.43%).
See full report (In Spanish).
