www.CostaRicaTicas.com

The U.S. Dollar has risen six percent against the Euro since Jan. 1st, and has risen against many other currencies also, but in Costa Rica it has fallen by 10 percent or so and is still falling.

There is no market-based reason for the sharp decline in CR, except that CR banks probably found themselves not holding a lot of dollars this winter and so are beating it down. Of course it could have something to do with this new love affair that the CR government has with China also, and with China trying to force the Yuan to replace the dollar as the world reserve/trading currency.

You'd think that North American tourism dollars would be more valued here, since tourism is CR's biggest industry. But the banks here are basically telling us to suck it up and fork over more and more money. Maybe it's time to go play in Medellin or Rio for a while and let the Costa Rican bankers do without so many dollars for a while.

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Don't call 'em hookers. I tell my wife I'm here dealing with holesalers.

Or maybe Arias exchanged all his dollars to colones, drove down the rate, and will exchange all his colones for a whole lot more dollars for his retirement just before he leaves office next week.

Mongeral (Al?),

With currencies, there is always a market-based reason for movements unless the local government is doing something to manipulate their own currency.

The Costa Rican government could be doing something to keep the Colon stronger against the Dollar, but I don't know why they would do this. It's in their own best interest to have the Colon stable or even weaker against the Dollar to help with exports to the U.S. A weaker Colon also helps draw tourists as you mentioned.

There is nothing that Costa Rica can do to affect the Dollar internationally, outside of Costa Rica. It's too small.

Your suggestion to go to Colombia or Brasil because of the weak Dollar does not hold water. Over the past 12 months, the Dollar is down 10% vs Costa Rica (Colon), but it is also down 16% vs Colombia (Peso), down 20% vs Brasil (Real), and down 7% vs Mexico (Peso).

Since the end of last year (Dec 2009), the Dollar is down 10% vs Costa Rica, down 4% vs Colombia, and down 6% vs Mexico. The Dollar is up a little vs Brazil since December, but only 1%.

There may be many good reasons to go to Colombia and Brasil rather than Costa Rica, but the recent weakness of the Dollar in Latin America isn't one of them.

By the way, while the Dollar is up 7% vs the Euro since December due to the Greek crisis, the Dollar is still down 3% vs the Euro over the past 12 months.

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"All them women gonna make me,
teach 'em what they don't know how..." TMIB

I used to measure the strength of the dollar versus the colombian peso by how many arepas I could buy for a dollar on my morning strolls....


strong dollar equaled maybe 6 arepas

middling dollar equaled 5 arepas

weak dollar equaled 4 arepas

(yo voy siempre a Cali)

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The difference between a Sea Story and a Fairy Tale is that a Fairy Tale starts out 'Once Upon a Time..' and a Sea Story starts out 'This is no Shit...'

(export version only, some restrictions may apply, some assembly required, not valid where the sun don't shine...

if you live in the states of Poverty, Darkness or anywhere outside of The Blessings of Civilization Trust, Inc...other rules may apply)

Hell, CR was 1 of the few places in the world where the dollar was holding good, actually increasing, not any more. Rio has gone from 2.8 to 1.8R v the dollar since my 1st visit & Colombia has gone 230k to 185kCP. Please find me a place where my mongering dollar is getting better value!!! Mr. Mongeral, Rio & Medellin ain't it!!!

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"cuz I'm a back-door man" Jim Morrison-1969

Has anybody run calcs on USD Vs. the currencies of the Dominican Republic (Sosua) or Peru (Lima), 2 other great destinations for Our Crowd? Might be interesting.

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"A man accustomed to hear only the echo of his own sentiments, soon bars all the common avenues of delight, and has no part in the general gratification of mankind"--Dr. Johnson
"Amen, brother"-ED

The sol (Peru) is more or less where it has been for the last couple of years. During my first trip, several years ago, I received 20% more than I would today. Still, its pretty inexpensive.

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I said hey baby, take a walk on the wild side.
Lou Reed

I have a couple of posts related to the dollar vs colon roller coaster. I have a little graph on the first post of the colon vs several other currencies. I can be persuaded to expand it, maybe, for monger destinations. But I'd have to remember how I did it.

http://www.usexpatcostarica.com/2010/02/the-incredible-shrinking-colon/

http://www.usexpatcostarica.com/2010/03/dollarization-%E2%80%93-miracle-cure-poison-pill-or-placebo/

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"The only normal people are those you don't know very well." Joe Ancis

I have been in the financial field for 35 years. It is always perception that counts.
The world can see plain what the brain dead are doing in Washington. Spending
What you don't have and creating fake books for the world. Their monetizing of
Our debt (780,000,000,000 just last year). Banks going to the to borrow
from Feds at .5% and buying US bonds at 3.5% further shrinking the creditability
of the dollar and the US.

Simple : It doesn’t mater what race, religon, national origin nor party affiliation. You put
That Politician sticker on their ass. They become a bunch of drunken asses.

just my humble oppinion.

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May the force be with you my CRT Jedi.

Contrary to most of Latin America, the US dollar has been getting consistently stronger against the Dominican Peso.

This link will show you a graph of the exchange rate over the past 2 years.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=USDDOP=X&t=2y&l=off&z=m&q=l&c=

Since the beginning of 2008, the dollar is up 11% versus the Dominican Peso, however it's only up 1% since the beginning of this year.

Peru is a different story. The dollar is down versus the Peruvian Nuevo Sol in both the short and long term.

_________________
"All them women gonna make me,
teach 'em what they don't know how..." TMIB