Economic assets

Accommodating for foreign companies and having, moreover, a highly qualified and flexible labor, Costa Rica set up a series of very attractive free zones, among others from a tax point of view.

For years, many telecommunications, data processing, and pharmaceutical companies have taken advantage of them.

Major companies like Total, Schneider Electric, Legrand or GDF SUEZ chose to settle in Costa Rica.

In addition to its ports installed on both oceans, Costa Rica also opened itself to international exchanges relying on several airports allowing to reach North America within a few hours.

Most companies propose indeed direct flights to Toronto, Miami, Houston, Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago, New York or Los Angeles to name only a few.

For Europe, it is hardly further thanks to the multiple companies that propose flights to the capital, San José, or to Liberia which is only a fifty-minute drive from the sunny beaches of Guanacaste, one of the most attractive regions for tourists but also for foreign residents.

To know more on the airline companies that link Costa Rica, discover our special page: "Travel to Costa Rica"

In parallel, for more than twenty years, Costa Rican authorities have put the priority on free trade by signing treaties with a multiplicity of countries, among which the United States (first business partner), Canada, Mexico, countries of Caricom (the Caribbean Community), Chile, Panama, Colombia, Peru, China or Singapore.

An association agreement was also signed in June 2012 between the Central American countries and the European Union.

Another major economic indicator is the GDP of the country.

With a GDP that reached $60.46 billion in 2018, Costa Rica has a per capita GDP, in purchasing power parity, of $17,570, while in Central America it is on average only $9,770 (IMF Source, October 2019).

It is the sector of services that contributes the most to the GDP of Costa Rica with 75.9%, while the sector of industry and the sector of agriculture take part in it respectively for 19.5% and for 4.6% (World Bank Source, 2019).

In addition, with a growth rate that reached 2.6% in 2018, Costa Rica surpasses many other countries in Central America and even in Latin America (IMF Source, October 2019).

Costa Rica confirms in this way that it is one of the most attractive countries of the whole region.