Economy Costa Rica

Economy - overview: Costa Rica's basically stable economy depends
on tourism, agriculture, and electronics exports. Poverty has been
substantially reduced over the past 15 years, and a strong social safety
net has been put into place. Foreign investors remain attracted by the
country's political stability and high education levels, and tourism
continues to bring in foreign exchange. However, traditional export
sectors have not kept pace. Low coffee prices and an overabundance of
bananas have hurt the agricultural sector. The government continues to
grapple with its large deficit and massive internal debt and with the need
to modernize the state-owned electricity and telecommunications sector.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $31.9 billion (2001 est.)

GDP - real growth rate: 0.3% (2001 est.)

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $8,500 (2001 est.)

GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 11% industry: 37% services:
52% (2000)

Population below poverty line: 20.6% (1999 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: 1.7%
highest 10%: 34.6% (2001)

Distribution of family income - Gini index: 45.9 (1997)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 12.1% (2001 est.)

Labor force: 1.9 million (1999)

Labor force - by occupation: agriculture 20%, industry 22%, services 58%
(1999 est.)

Unemployment rate: 5.2% (2000 est.)

Budget: revenues: $1.91 billion expenditures: $2.35 billion, including
capital expenditures of $NA (2000 est.)

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

Industrial production growth rate: -2.1% (2001 est.)

Electricity - production: 6.887 billion kWh (2000)

Electricity - production by source: fossil fuel: 1.15% hydro: 82.56%
other: 16.29% (2000) nuclear: 0%

Electricity - consumption: 5.895 billion kWh (2000)

Electricity - exports: 532 million kWh (2000)

Electricity - imports: 22 million kWh (2000)

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

Exports: $5 billion (2001)

Exports - commodities: coffee, bananas, sugar; pineapples; textiles,
electronic components, medical equipment

Exports - partners: US 51.8%, EU 20%, Central America 10.6%, Puerto
Rico 2.8%, Mexico 1.7% (2000)

Imports: $6.5 billion (2001)

Imports - commodities: raw materials, consumer goods, capita