QCOSTARICA – Costa Rica’s economy would be affected indirectly through the United States, following the United Kingdom’s decision to break from the European Union, reports the country’s leading business newspaper, La Republica.
The report says the U.S. is expected to be affected negatively, with lower exports, tourism and slower growth in the economy, which in turn would affect Costa Rica, given the importance of that economy to ours.
Luis Diego Herrera, economist for the Grupo Financierio Acobo, explained that declining incomes would bring a decrease in imported goods and reduce spending on vacationing, thus affecting Costa Rica’s tourism sector.
However, “the effects of the UK’s departure from the EU will not be seen from one day to the next, it would take some months to be seen,” says the expert.
19% of Costa Rica’s exports in 2015 were destined for the European Union and of that total, 10% went to the UK. The accumulated so far this year (to May) is 22% to the EU and 9.6% of the total to the UK.
According to the Washington Post, “although Britain may not actually leave the E.U. for years, Thursday’s vote fires the starting gun on what is widely expected to be a messy proceeding as Britain and E.U. officials begin untangling the vast web of connections between this island nation and the other 27 members of the bloc.”