Costa Rica recently agreed to participate in the US - Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA); read more about the implications of CAFTA.

GDP: $48.77 billion (2006 est.)

GDP real growth rate: $20.77 billion (2006 est.)

GDP per capita: $12,000 (2006 est.)

GDP composition by sector:

agriculture: 8.6%
industry: 31%
services: 60.4% (2006 est.)

Investment (gross fixed): 20.2% of GDP (2004 est.)

Population below poverty line:18% (2004 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:

lowest 10%: 1.1%
highest 10%: 36.8% (2002)

Distribution of family income - Gini index: 46.5 (2000)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 12.1% (2006 est.)

Labor force: 1.866 million (2006 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:

agriculture 20%
industry 22%
services 58% (1999 est.)

Unemployment rate: 6.6% (2006 est.)

Budget:

revenues: $3.134 billion
expenditures: $3.475 billion; including capital expenditures

Public debt: 53.4% of GDP (2006 est.)

Agriculture - products: coffee, pineapples, bananas, sugar, corn, rice, beans, potatoes; beef; timber

Industries: microprocessors, food processing, textiles and clothing, construction materials, fertilizer, plastic products

Industrial production growth rate: 8.4% (2006 est.)

Electricity production: 8.4 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity consumption: 7.574 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity exports: 440 million kWh (2004)

Electricity imports: 202 million kWh (2004)

Oil production: 0 bbl/day (2004)

Oil consumption: 44,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil exports: NA (2001)

Oil imports: NA (2001)

Current account balance: $-1.176 billion (2006 est.)

Exports: $7.931 billion (2006 est.)

Exports commodities:

coffee, bananas, sugar, pineapples; textiles, electronic components, medical equipment

Exports partners: US 42.6%, Hong Kong 6.9%, Netherlands 6.4%, Guatemala 4.2% (2005)

Imports: $10.88 billion (2006 est.)

Imports commodities: raw materials, consumer goods, capital equipment, petroleum

Imports partners: US 41.3%, Japan 5.6%, Venezuela 4.8%, Mexico 4.8%, Ireland 4.3%, Brazil 4.2%, China 4.2% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange & gold: $2.5 billion (2006 est.)

Debt - external: $6.42 billion (30 June 2006 est.)

Currency: Costa Rican colon (CRC)

Currency code: CRC

Exchange rates:

Costa Rican colones per US dollar -  493.25 (2008), 517. 2 (2007), 511.3 (2006), 477.79 (2005), 437.91 (2004), 398.663 (2003), 359.817 (2002), 328.871 (2001), 308.187 (2000), 285.685 (1999)

Fiscal year: Calendar year

All data gathered from the CIA -World Fact Book, 2007

See Also:

Costa Rican Currency

Banking in Costa Rica

Major Banks in Costa Rica

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