BID Approves Another
us$500 Million Dollars
For Costa Rica
The Banco Interamericano
de Desarrollo (BID) has
approved a us$500
million dollar line of
credit to the Banco
Central de Costa Rica (BCCR)
- Central Bank - so that
the institution will
have sufficient dollars
on hand so as to be
fully liquid in the
currency at all times.
The move is to allow the
Central Bank to have
sufficient liquidity to
meet the needs and
demands of the banks of
the US currency. The
ministro de Hacienda,
Guillermo Zúñiga, said
that the credit was
applied for in October.
Zúñiga, however, did not
provide details of the
credit, assuring that
the interest rate and
repayment details have
yet to be finalized.
"This is a preventive
strategy", said Zúñiga,
which added that the
credit still required
the approval of the
legislators which will
come before them in
January 2009.
The us$500 million is
not the only funds that
the government can count
on this year. Pending
approval are a us$19
million dollar loan by
lenders for national
parks, also being
provided by the BID, and
yet another us$850
million dollar loan by
the BID for
infrastructure. In
addition, there is the
World Bank loans for
us$72 million and us$65
million to be used
exclusively to help
repair the damanges in
Limón by this years rain
and floods.
At the end of November,
Hacienda had a surplus
of ¢97 billion colones,
according to Zúñiga, of
which ¢58 billion will
be used to capitalize
the state banks as
approved by legislators
earlier this year.
Hacienda reports that
for the first 11 months
of the year, tax revenue
was more than ¢551
billion colones, 35%
higher than the same
period in 2007. |
