LatinNews Daily Report - 09 August 2013

ECONOMY | Unemployment figures challenged. On 8 August economists from the State Universidad Nacional (UNA) unveiled their own analysis of Costa Rica’s unemployment figures and suggested that the unemployment rate could be 18.4%, nearly twice the official figure of 9.8% cited by the national statistics institute (Inec). Roxana Morales, one of the economists who presented the three-year report, Tendencias del empleo en Costa Rica en el periodo 2010-2013: fortalezas y debilidades, told reporters that according to Inec, 209,157 people were unemployed in the first quarter of 2013, but this only took into account people looking for employment and that if those who have stopped looking for employment are included, the figure rises to 445,427. Another economist, Henry Mora, said that a total of 14,000 jobs were lost in the first quarter of 2013 compared with the same period in 2012, indicative of an economic slowdown. Mora said that Costa Rica’s recent GDP growth (which reached 4.4% in 2011 and 5.0% in 2010) had failed to support the demand for jobs. This echoes a common public complaint that the government of President Laura Chinchilla has not done enough to address inequality and reduce poverty.

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