OECD Economic Surveys: Costa Rica 2025

Costa Rica’s economy has shown strong growth since the pandemic, with an improved fiscal outlook thanks to contained public spending. To sustain this momentum and support solid medium-term growth, enhance living standards, secure fiscal sustainability and advance the transition to a low-carbon economy, Costa Rica needs to continue and deepen its reform efforts.

Economic performance has improved. Costa Rica’s economy is performing well (Figure 1), with growth driven by increasing specialization in high value-added manufacturing and services. Exports are up, and unemployment, income inequality and poverty have recently fallen. The public-debt-to-GDP ratio is also declining. The country is well positioned to seize new trade and investment opportunities, thanks to its commitment to open trade.

Ongoing reforms aim to improve the economy further and should be deepened. Reforms underway include creating a single window for social programmes, overhauling the education system and increasing competition in professional services. However, several of these reforms are still in the early stages of implementation or need legislative approval. Addressing skill mismatches, increasing female labour participation, and reducing informality are crucial for boosting medium-term growth.

Economic activity is set to remain robust, supported by strong exports and improving domestic demand. After receding strongly and becoming negative in 2023, headline inflation will gradually increase towards target.

GDP growth is expected to be 3.8% in 2025. Exports will continue to perform strongly, benefiting from robust global trade. Private consumption will be supported by formal employment growth and improving consumers’ confidence. Private investment will be bolstered by a solid pipeline of foreign direct investment (Table 1).

Unemployment has fallen, below its pre-pandemic level. However, reduced labour force participation, especially among women and youth, partly accounts for this improvement. Formal employment is on the rise, with new jobs increasingly demanding specialized and technical skills. Growth in knowledge-intensive services and high-tech manufacturing is hampered by a mismatch between job vacancies and the skills of job seekers.

Inflation is gradually rising towards target. Headline inflation, which receded sharply and became negative in 2023 due to the reversal of external price shocks and a strong appreciation of the colon, is gradually increasing. Inflation expectations have remained broadly anchored, although they have edged down to the lower limit of the tolerance band.

Monetary policy has responded swiftly to the large external shocks. As inflation began to decline, the Central Bank was the first in the region that started easing. The exchange rate has been allowed to move more flexibly in response to market conditions, acting as a buffer against external shocks. Embedding the Central Bank’s independence in the Constitution would further strengthen the institution’s credibility.

The financial system has been resilient, but increasing financial dollarization poses risks. Credit and deposit in dollars represent around 35% of the total. Two thirds of the dollarized debt is unhedged. Foreign currency borrowing has recently increased.

A number of distortions fragment financial markets and hinder competition. They affect both state-owned and private banks and include the requirement for public banks to pay contributions to several state funds or for private banks to transfer a share of their deposits to a public fund at below market conditions. Correcting these distortions would have an economy-wide positive impact by facilitating access by firms and households to credit at lower costs.

The fiscal situation has improved but ensuring fiscal sustainability remains a priority. To achieve this Costa Rica should focus on reducing public debt by sticking to the fiscal rule, introducing spending reviews to improve public spending efficiency and raising more tax revenues by expanding tax bases.

The fiscal situation has improved. After struggling with large deficits in the 2010s, strict adherence to fiscal targets (Figure 2) has helped to start reducing the debt-to-GDP ratio. Primary spending has decreased due to public sector wage restraint, lower transfers to public entities, and fewer capital projects. With debt interest payments high, at 5% of GDP, and a still high level of public debt, securing fiscal sustainability remains a key priority.

Continuing to fully comply with the fiscal rule is essential. Ongoing fiscal plans appropriately focus on further reducing public debt and interest payments by ensuring a full compliance with the fiscal rule. Declining interest costs will create room to gradually increase social and capital spending. Maintaining a strong fiscal rule remains critical to safeguard progress achieved.

Efforts to improve spending efficiency are underway and should continue. The 2022 public employment law, which standardized salary structures among others, marks a significant step toward enhancing efficiency. Its full implementation will be key to meet the government medium-term fiscal plans. Spending reviews would help prioritize and reallocate funds to improve the quality of public spending. Sharing and using data within the public sector can enhance policy design and allow for better evaluation, helping to ensure that spending is effective and efficient.

Broadening tax bases would support fiscal sustainability and create more fiscal space. Currently, tax expenditures in VAT and personal income tax are large and often benefit wealthier taxpayers. It is critical to avoid legislative changes that erode further the tax base. Personal income tax revenue is significantly lower than in OECD and regional peers.

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Facilitating female labour participation and reducing informality will require expanding access to early education and care, along with a comprehensive strategy to reduce informality. This strategy should include lowering the cost of formal employment and reducing the administrative and economic burdens associated with establishing a formal business.

Female labour force participation in Costa Rica is 27 percentage points lower than men’s and lags other OECD countries and regional peers (Figure 3). Domestic caregiving responsibilities limit women’s workforce participation, particularly among low-income women, whose participation rate is below 40%. Additionally, only 7% of children aged 0-2 are enrolled in early education and childcare services.

Expanding access to high-quality affordable early childhood education and care should be a top priority. Currently, the early education network reaches only about 40% of households in poverty. Previous plans fell markedly short of needs. Ensuring access by low-income families should be prioritised. As a next step, access should become available to higher-income households. Co-payment mechanisms for these households can help expand coverage even with limited fiscal resources. The current system is fragmented with unclear roles and responsibilities.

With around 40% of workers in informal jobs, putting in place a comprehensive strategy to tackle informality is also crucial. High employer payroll charges increase the cost of formal employment, hurting particularly low-skilled workers. Not all existing payroll charges are financing the social security system. Bureaucratic and costly regulations complicate setting up formal firms. Low-skilled workers face significant challenges in accessing formal employment opportunities.

Costa Rica has set ambitious targets to decarbonize its economy. Achieving decarbonization targets and fostering adaptation to climate change requires expanding and diversifying renewable energy and improving the management of waste and water.

Costa Rica aims at decarbonizing its economy and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, aligning with global efforts to limit global warming to 1.5°C, one of the few among OECD countries. Electrifying the transport sector, which accounts for 54% of carbon emissions, is key to achieve this goal.

Climate change is impacting renewables energy production in Costa Rica. Although nearly all electricity comes from renewables, with hydropower accounting for up to 70%, drier seasons are impacting electricity availability and prices. The planned electrification of transport will increase electricity demand fourfold by 2050. Currently, oil, which is fully imported, and used mainly for transport, accounts for 49% of the energy mix. Enhancing the planning of the electricity system would enable a more forward-looking response to medium-term needs and emerging challenges, such as increasing drier seasons.

Regulatory reforms in the electricity sector could boost investment. The state-owned company holds near-total control, with private companies limited to generating 30% of the total electricity at a maximum and mandated to sell their output exclusively to the state company. Barriers also restrict foreign participation in the sector.

Improving waste and water management is vital for adapting to climate change. Waste management, which contributes to 15% of emissions, a larger proportion than in other OECD countries, relies heavily on landfills, impacting ecosystems and public health. Water availability is already affected by losses, distribution issues, and a poorly developed sewerage network, with only 25% of the population connected (Figure 4). Climate change and the associated drier seasons are expected to worsen these challenges. Enhancing the planning and execution of water infrastructure projects is essential.

Openness to trade and foreign direct investment has spurred growth and formal job creation, but many workers, firms and regions have yet to benefit from it. Nearshoring offers new opportunities for Costa Rica to capitalize on its trade openness and maximize trade benefits, which will require continuing to optimize trade policies, enhancing education, fostering innovation, improving infrastructure, and promoting stronger competition.

Costa Rica’s commitment to open trade has boosted exports, diversified production and driven economic growth. Medical devices and business services have now surpassed agricultural commodities and tourism as the country’s leading exports (Figure 5). Costa Rica’s outstanding trade performance and ability to attract FDI are the outcome of a successful trade policy. With Costa Rica’s exports remaining concentrated in a few destinations, notably the United States (45% of total exports), the government continued efforts to diversity trade agreements and enhance trade facilitation, which have regained considerable impetus since 2022, are welcome. They will facilitate stronger integration into global and regional value chains.

Costa Rica’s well-educated workforce has been traditionally a key factor to attract FDI and develop value added exports. Education is a priority for Costa Rica, but the education system has struggled to keep pace with the increasing demand for high-tech and advanced skills, leading to large skills shortages that now pose a critical threat to Costa Rica’s FDI attractiveness and its ability to maximize trade benefits. A comprehensive education reform is underway, but key timelines and milestones are still unclear. Urgent priorities include accelerating vocational education reforms to boost technical skills, increasing technicians and graduates in STEM areas and ensuring university education is better aligned with labour market demands.

Boosting innovation is crucial for Costa Rican firms to access international markets. However, interactions between public universities and businesses are weak, and most innovation funding goes directly to universities without impact evaluations. Competitive performance-based funding is limited, compared to other OECD countries.

Infrastructure bottlenecks are large, driving up trade costs and limiting the participation of remote regions and SMEs in international trade. Key issues include poor-quality roads and overcrowded ports. The low quality of transport infrastructure can be attributed to underspending, deficient strategic planning and inefficient capital project execution, with only 30% of budgeted capital spending getting executed.

Boosting competition in domestic markets can help Costa Rican firms access better inputs at lower costs. Currently, Costa Rica has some of the strictest regulations in the OECD. Efforts are being made to improve competition in some areas, such as removing anticompetitive practices in professional services and reducing the large and complex stock of regulations. Continuing to increase the Competition Authority’s budget is crucial for identifying and addressing anticompetitive practices.