Costa Rica continues with the highest gasoline prices in the region. Price per U.S. gallon of regular gasoline in Costa Rica is US$3.48, Nicaragua US$3.28, Honduras US$3.19, El Salvador US$2.81, Guatemala US$2.75 and Panama US$2.56.
The increase in the reference prices for the current fortnight, according to the last two reports provided by the IEA, is because the reserves of gasoline and diesel show decreases in the last two weeks.
The cumulative reduction for gasoline is 1.722 million barrels, while experts expected a 4.401-million-barrel increase. Likewise, diesel presents a reduction in these last two weeks of 3.379 million barrels, when the experts’ expectations were that the reduction was of approximately 3.814 million barrels, these decreases are because of the arctic cold wave that was experienced in the first week of February in most of the United States of America, which elevated the consumption of fuels.
Together with the reduction in inventories announced by the IEA, OPEC reported that for January 2019, 10,240 million barrels per day were produced, while for December it had produced 10,643 million barrels per day. This reduction, of approximately 400,000 barrels per day, between countries belonging to OPEC and those not belonging to the organization, has caused the prices of oil and its derivatives to fluctuate with an upward trend in international markets.
| Prices in U.S. dollars | Regular | Special | Diesel |
| Guatemala | 2.75 | 2.90 | 2.67 |
| El Salvador | 2.81 | 3.05 | 2.91 |
| Nicaragua | 3.28 | 3.45 | 3.25 |
| Honduras | 3.19 | 3.54 | 3.15 |
| Costa Rica | 3.48 | 3.57 | 3.22 |
| Panamá | 2.56 | 2.68 | 2.58 |
*Prices taken from Acodeco.gob.pa
The current local (in colones) price for fuels at Costa Rica gasoline stations as set by Recope is:
- Regular: ¢568
- Super or Plus: ¢582
- Diesel: ¢525
