BCR Lowers Interest Rates
The Banco de Costa Rica (BCR) announced yesterday that it is
reducing its interest rates 3.5 percentage points on all new
mortgage loans and 5 percentage points for all new small and medium
sized business loans (Pymes). The lower rate will be for a two year
period.
As well the state bank is lowering rates on existing mortgage and
pymes loans by 2 percentage points and with no limit on the amount.
The lower rate will be also for a two year period.
The BCR also said it will be putting a ceiling on the maximum
interest rate of all mortgages and Pymes loans for the next 12
months.
In the case of mortgages, the rate will not be higher than 15%,
according to the BCR president, Mario Rivera. For other loans, the
cap on interest rates will be 16% for secured loans and 17% for non
secured loans.
Rivera added that the cap on interest rates is a way of giving
people confidence that the bank's rate reduction is false and that
the rate reduction is for all mortgages, even those higher than the
˘50 million colones Costa Rican president, Oscar Arias, outlined
last Thursday in his "Plan Escudo" to stimulate the economy in a
time of crisis.
The bank president was clear that the lower rates apply only to
loans in colones and that the BCR will also allow customers to
change their loans and mortgages from dollars to colones free of
charge. |
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