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Economy - overview:
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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. At the same time, distribution of income remains severely unequal. 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, with the need to modernize the state-owned electricity and telecommunications sector, and with the problem of bringing down inflation.
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GDP:
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purchasing power parity - $32 billion (2002 est.)
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GDP - real growth rate:
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2.8% (2002 est.)
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GDP - per capita:
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purchasing power parity - $8,300 (2002 est.)
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GDP - composition by sector:
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agriculture: 9%
industry: 30%
services: 61% (2002 est.)
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Population below poverty line:
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20.6% (1999 est.)
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Household income or consumption by percentage share:
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lowest 10%: 1.7%
highest 10%: 34.6% (2001)
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Distribution of family income - Gini index:
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45.9 (1997)
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Inflation rate (consumer prices):
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9.1% (2002 est.)
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Labor force:
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1.9 million (1999)
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Labor force - by occupation:
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agriculture 20%, industry 22%, services 58% (1999 est.)
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Unemployment rate:
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6.3% (2002 est.)
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Budget:
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revenues: $1.91 billion
expenditures: $2.35 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (2000 est.)
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Industries:
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microprocessors, food processing, textiles and clothing, construction materials, fertilizer, plastic products
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Industrial production growth rate:
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2.9% (2002 est.)
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Electricity - production:
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6.839 billion kWh (2001)
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Electricity - production by source:
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fossil fuel: 1.5%
hydro: 81.9%
other: 16.6% (2001)
nuclear: 0%
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Electricity - consumption:
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6.109 billion kWh (2001)
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Electricity - exports:
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379 million kWh (2001)
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Electricity - imports:
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128 million kWh (2001)
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Oil - production:
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0 bbl/day (2001 est.)
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Oil - consumption:
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37,000 bbl/day (2001 est.)
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Oil - exports:
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NA (2001)
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Oil - imports:
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NA (2001)
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Agriculture - products:
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coffee, pineapples, bananas, sugar, corn, rice, beans, potatoes; beef; timber
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Exports:
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$5.1 billion (2002)
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Exports - commodities:
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coffee, bananas, sugar; pineapples; textiles, electronic components, medical equipment
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Exports - partners:
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US 31.5%, Netherlands 8.9%, UK 4.5% (2002)
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Imports:
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$6.4 billion (2002)
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Imports - commodities:
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raw materials, consumer goods, capital equipment, petroleum
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Imports - partners:
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US 36.7%, Japan 4.4%, Mexico 4.2% (2002)
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Debt - external:
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$4.8 billion (2002 est.)
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Currency:
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Costa Rican colon (CRC)
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Currency code:
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CRC
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Exchange rates:
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Costa Rican colones per US dollar - 359.82 (2002), 328.87 (2001), 308.19 (2000), 285.69 (1999), 257.23 (1998)
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Fiscal year:
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calendar year
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