Economy and credit — Costa Rica
Interest rates, inflation, the currency, remittances and bank credit in Costa Rica: the official monthly series a property investor checks first, and what each one means for property.
Month by month since 2015
Hover or tap a chart to read the exact value for each month.
Interest rates
12-month inflation
Exchange rate
Private credit growth
- Remittances — Published quarterly only, so it is not shown as a monthly flow.
The numbers behind every chart are in the JSON version of this page: /api/economia?country=CR
Construction costs
INEC Costa Rica construction price indices, base February 2025 = 100: what it costs to build, a key input in new-home prices.
−0.2% in 12 months
+2.0% in 12 months
Construction price indices
What it means for property
How each indicator reaches the housing market. Context, not advice.
Rates and mortgage affordability
At a rate near 11.49%, each extra percentage point raises the monthly payment on a 20-year loan by about 6.5%.
Banks price mortgages off their own funding costs, which follow the policy rate with a lag. Lower rates widen the pool of buyers who qualify for a loan; higher rates shrink it, and tend to slow sales before they move prices.
Inflation and the real cost of credit
Lending rate 11.49% minus inflation −1.64% leaves a real rate of 13.13% (Apr 2026).
Rents and building costs tend to follow the general price level over time, which is why property is often held against inflation. A high real rate means debt is expensive compared with that protection; a negative one means inflation erodes it.
The currency, for a dollar-based investor
colón per US dollar: 507.51 a year ago, 452.13 in Sep 2026 (−10.9%).
More local units per dollar means a weaker local currency: a cheaper entry for a buyer holding dollars, but rents and the resale price are then worth fewer dollars. Fewer units per dollar means the opposite.
Remittances and housing demand
Remittances are about 0.8% of GDP here (World Bank, 2025).
That is small next to Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras or the Dominican Republic, where remittances are a major source of household income and of housing demand.
Credit and the pace of the market
Private credit grew +10.6% in the 12 months to May 2026, measured in US dollars.
Credit growth shows how easily households get mortgages and developers finance projects. With a floating currency, part of the change measured in dollars is the exchange rate itself.
Long-run context
Annual figures from the World Bank, to put the monthly series in perspective.
Recent years
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GDP growth | −4.1% | +8.2% | +5.5% | +4.8% | +4.1% | +4.6% |
| Inflation | 0.7% | 1.7% | 8.3% | 0.5% | −0.4% | −0.1% |
| Remittances, share of GDP | 0.8% | 0.9% | 0.9% | 0.8% | 0.7% | 0.8% |
The 7 economies side by side
Latest official value of each indicator, with its month underneath. A dash means the series is not published comparably; hover it for the reason.
| Country | Policy rate | Average lending rate | Deposit rate | Inflation | Real rate | Currency, 12 months | Remittances, 12 months | Credit growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇬🇹 Guatemala | 3.50%Oct 2026 | 13.08%Aug 2026 | 4.63%Aug 2026 | 4.68%Sep 2026 | 9.70%Aug 2026 | −0.2%GTQ · Oct 2026 | US$26.48 bn +10.7%to Jul 2026 | +10.9%Aug 2026 |
| 🇸🇻 El Salvador | — | 7.60%Jul 2026 | 4.69%Jul 2026 | 3.60%Sep 2026 | 5.12%Jul 2026 | US dollar | US$10.20 bn +8.7%to Jul 2026 | +9.5%Aug 2026 |
| 🇭🇳 Honduras | 6.00%Oct 2026 | 17.67%Jul 2026 | 8.33%Jul 2026 | 6.28%Sep 2026 | 12.09%Jul 2026 | +3.1%HNL · Sep 2026 | US$12.99 bn +16.6%to Jul 2026 | +5.3%Jun 2026 |
| 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | 3.00%Oct 2026 | 11.49%Apr 2026 | 3.64%May 2026 | 0.34%Sep 2026 | 13.13%Apr 2026 | −10.9%CRC · Sep 2026 | — | +10.6%May 2026 |
| 🇵🇦 Panamá | — | —mortgage 6.21% | — | 2.20%Aug 2026 | 4.00%Aug 2026 | at par with USD | — | +1.4%Aug 2026 |
| 🇧🇿 Belice | — | — | — | 4.07%Jul 2026 | — | pegged to USD | — | — |
| 🇩🇴 República Dominicana | 5.50%Oct 2026 | 14.08%Aug 2026 | 7.41%Aug 2026 | 5.13%Aug 2026 | 8.95%Aug 2026 | −5.8%DOP · Sep 2026 | US$12.38 bn +7.0%to Aug 2026 | +15.7%Aug 2026 |
Definitions differ between countries where the central banks define them differently (for example the lending rate); see the methodology below before comparing levels.
Sources and definitions
Only official series appear on this page. Where a central bank does not publish a comparable monthly figure, the page says so instead of estimating one.
| Harmonized series | Rates, inflation, exchange rates, remittances and private credit come from SECMCA, the Executive Secretariat of the Central American Monetary Council, which harmonizes what each central bank publishes. Monthly, since January 2015. |
| Policy rate | Monetary policy rate set by the central bank (Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic). El Salvador and Panama use the US dollar and have none. For Belize the harmonized series is the rediscount rate, which is not comparable, so it is not shown. |
| Average lending rate | Average nominal lending rate in local currency. Costa Rica: negotiated lending rate (BCCR). El Salvador: loans up to 1 year. Honduras: the IMF and World Bank definition on outstanding loans, higher than the new-loan rate the central bank headlines. Panama: withheld, the harmonized series could not be verified against the Superintendencia; the average mortgage rate is shown instead. |
| Deposit rate | Average nominal deposit rate in local currency. Costa Rica: basic deposit rate (Tasa Básica Pasiva). El Salvador: 180-day deposits. |
| Inflation | Consumer price index, change over the previous 12 months, as published by each national statistics office. |
| Exchange rate | Local currency per US dollar, monthly average of the sell rate. Guatemala: Banco de Guatemala reference rate, last reading of each month. El Salvador uses the US dollar, the balboa is at par with it, and the Belize dollar is fixed at 2 per US dollar. |
| Remittances | Monthly inflows in US$ millions. Costa Rica, Panama and Belize publish them quarterly only, so they are not shown as a monthly flow. |
| Private credit | Credit from deposit-taking institutions to the private sector, stock at month end, converted to US dollars at the same month's exchange rate. Growth in dollars includes currency moves. |
| Real interest rate | Derived on this page: average lending rate (Panama: average mortgage rate) minus 12-month inflation, same month. A simple backward-looking measure, not the expected real rate. |
| Construction costs | INEC Costa Rica construction price indices (building prices and social-interest housing), base February 2025 = 100. |
| Long-run context | World Bank World Development Indicators, annual. |
Coverage for Costa Rica
| Policy rate | Jan 2015 – Oct 2026 | SECMCA |
| Average lending rate | Jan 2015 – Apr 2026 | SECMCA |
| Deposit rate | Jan 2015 – May 2026 | SECMCA |
| Inflation | Jan 2015 – Sep 2026 | SECMCA |
| Exchange rate | Jan 2015 – Sep 2026 | SECMCA |
| Private credit | Jan 2015 – May 2026 | SECMCA |
How to read it
- Each figure carries its own month: central banks publish on different calendars, so the latest lending rate can be older than the latest policy rate.
- Changes are against the same month a year earlier: percentage points for rates, percent for levels and flows.
- Official figures are revised; this page picks up revisions with the next nightly update.