QCOSTARICA – The average exchange of the U.S. dollar in the Monex market, where amounts of US$1,000 and up are traded, has risen, between Monday and Tuesday, ¢5.81 to reach ¢644.76 Monday.
This increase is also reflected at the banks where the sell ranged between ¢644 and ¢651.
The official exchange buy rate set by the Banco Central (Central Bank) to ¢638.13, and the sale price ¢645.49.
The rise occurs despite the fact that in the private sector the U.S. currency surplus has increased, which means that this month financial institutions have bought more dollars from the public than they have sold.
On the part of the public sector, the entities buy the currencies they require from the Central Bank and then it replaces them in Monex. On December 20 and 21, the monetary authority bought just US$900,000 in foreign currency in Monex. Last week it bought US$101 million.
What does show a significant reduction are international monetary reserves, which this month have dropped by US$250 million to US$6.53 billion, which may influence expectations.
For Rossy Durán, corporate finance manager at the State bank, the Banco de Costa Rica (BCR), the increase in the exchange rate is typical for the end of the year.
“In general, what can be seen is a greater demand for foreign currency in the Monex wholesale market, which has also translated into a greater requirement for foreign currency by economic agents and customers in general than when seeing the behavior in the market. In general, this is a typical behavior that occurs at the end of each year,” said Durán.