QCOSTARICA – Employers say the 18% decline in exports in February 2015 compared to the same month in 2014 is not due to temporary factors, but to a continued loss of competitiveness.
Excessive bureaucracy and the high cost of energy and other factors related to production are part of the problems affecting the private sector and are causing a reduction of exports, according to the president of the National Chamber of Agriculture and Agribusiness, Juan Rafael Lizano.
The executive director of the Chamber of Exporters of Costa Rica, Fiorella Bulgarelli told Crhoy.com that “… There are a number of factors that are influencing the decline in exports. First, red tape remains cumbersome because there are a lot of institutions and they do not hold agreements with each other. Second, there is little progress in infrastructure and third, we lack financing and although there is hope with the System for Development Banking, there are some sectors that are not going to be able to have access to it. ”
For his part, Francisco Gamboa, executive director of the Chamber of Industries of Costa Rica , added, “… The industrial sector remains a major concern, because excluding electronic components in order to isolate the effect of Intel, industrial exports outside the free zone fell by 10% and this decline affected all target regions except North America. We therefore hope that this behavior can be reversed … “.
Source: Crhoy.com
and it will continue without intervention AND transparency. Rico? your take?
The first thing that needs to be done is cut all benefits to Elected and Appointed officials past and present, <Then fire / remove 30 % of the peope not doing any thing at RECOPE. Build more GEO Thermal elect plants, Build elect gen.plants using garbage. Tax the church the Govt. now gives it 1million dollars a year, WHy?
And this article is NEW/NEWS? Certainly not to anyone who has spent any extended time in Costa Rica. It always sounds like government officials are surprised, but they should know better than anyone.
I’m not convinced that exports are down. We know from other reports that Costa Rica ranks in the top 10 or 20 countries in the world for the amount of off-the-books money flowing into and out of the country, which is a pretty high ranking for such a small economy, and also know that 80-90% of these hidden international financial flows are attributable to fraudulent invoicing by businesses, mainly multinational corporations. With this kind of money seeping through the cracks of international trade, who the hell knows what the real value of Costa Rica’s exports are? Until we have an idea how much Costa Rica is really exporting, explaining a rise or decline in the reported value of exports is pointless.