Costa Rica: Economic growth falls in the third quarter
GDP reading: GDP growth waned to 3.7% year on year in the third quarter, from 5.3% in the second quarter....
Economic Growth in Costa Rica
The Costa Rican economy recorded an average growth rate of 3.1% in the decade to 2022, above the 1.9% average for Central America and Caribbean. In 2022, real GDP growth was 4.6%. For more GDP information, visit our dedicated page.
Costa Rica GDP Chart
Note: This chart displays Economic Growth (GDP, annual variation in %) for Costa Rica from 2021 to 2020.
Source: Macrobond.
Costa Rica GDP Data
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Economic Growth (GDP, ann. var. %) | 2.4 | -4.3 | 7.9 | 4.6 | 5.1 |
| GDP (USD bn) | 64.3 | 62.3 | 64.8 | 69.1 | 86.5 |
| GDP (CRC bn) | 37,832 | 36,495 | 40,327 | 44,810 | 47,059 |
| Economic Growth (Nominal GDP, ann. var. %) | 5.0 | -3.5 | 10.5 | 11.1 | 5.0 |
Economic growth falls in the third quarter
GDP reading: GDP growth waned to 3.7% year on year in the third quarter, from 5.3% in the second quarter. On a seasonally adjusted quarter-on-quarter basis, economic growth moderated to 0.6% in Q3, from the previous period's 1.2% rise and marking the softest expansion since Q2 2022.
Drivers: The annual deceleration was driven by a slowdown in domestic demand. Household spending increased 2.5% in the third quarter, which was below the second quarter's 4.7% expansion. Moreover, fixed investment growth waned to 1.0% in Q3, compared to 10.3% in the previous quarter. Meanwhile, public consumption remained at Q2’s 0.8% in Q3. On the external front, exports of goods and services growth accelerated to 8.2% year on year in the third quarter, which marked the best reading since Q2 2023 (Q2: +3.3% yoy). Conversely, imports of goods and services growth softened to 4.0% in Q3 (Q2: +6.2% yoy).
GDP outlook: Our Consensus is for GDP to expand at a similar pace to Q3’s in Q4, and to grow less quickly in 2025 relative to 2024 on the heels of a softer rise in fixed investment. Rising U.S. protectionism under a Trump presidency and a deterioration in domestic security are downside risks.
Consensus Forecasts and Projections for the next ten years
How should you choose a forecaster if some are too optimistic while others are too pessimistic? FocusEconomics collects Costa Rican GDP projections for the next ten years from a panel of 21 analysts at the leading national, regional and global forecast institutions. These projections are then validated by our in-house team of economists and data analysts and averaged to provide one Consensus Forecast you can rely on for each indicator. By averaging all forecasts, upside and downside forecasting errors tend to cancel each other out, leading to the most reliable GDP forecast available for Costa Rican GDP.
Download one of our sample reports to visualize what a Consensus Forecast is and see our Costa Rican GDP projections.
Want to get access to the full dataset of Costa Rican GDP forecasts? Send an email to info@focus-economics.com.
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