You Want Dollars? Have a billion! At a press conference and in the face of continued exchange rate hikes, as Banco Central de Costa Rica (Central Bank) Director of the Economic Division of the Central Bank, Róger Madrigal, said in a clear message that the monetary authority has enough currencies to curb abnormal movements.
The Central Bank executive said that if the public wanted to continue buying dollars, they had billions.
The morning comment came after the steep devaluation of the colon over the past, at some private banks hitting ¢601 colones for the sale, while the Central Bank’s reference rate was ¢597.49 after a steep increase from the previous day.
By noon the dollar exchange rate had dropped on average about ¢4 colones the private and State banks after an announcement by the Central Bank that it will intervene in the market with up to US$1 billion dollars.
The Central Bank’s reference sell rate this morning opened at ¢594.47, ¢4.02 colones than the day before.
Economist Luis Liberman, (former Vice-President of Costa Rica, former president of Scotiabank Costa Rica and founder of Banco Interfin, bought out by Scotia) said that the entity (Central Bank) has sufficient resources to take these measures.
“The (Central) bank is sitting on a huge amount of reserves, it should be taking, as it is already doing, a series of economic policy measures to reassure this thing,” said Liberman in an interview with La Nación.
