Weekly Report - 15 July 2003

The government of Costa Rica has announced a US$75m spending cut in order to trim the fiscal deficit, given the slow pace at which its planned tax reforms are moving in congress. 

The government has calculated that this year's deficit will reach US$600m, or 4% of GDP -one percentage point more than the target set in the monetary plan. 

Finance minister Alberto Dent says the cut has been made necessary by the fact that the fiscal contingency law, a temporary scheme which came into effect as congress dealt with the tax reform, has only generated an extra US$100m of revenues.