Weekly Report - 26 February 2015 (WR-15-08)

COSTA RICA | Getting the country moving. On 23 February President Luis Guillermo Solís signed a law approving funds for the expansion of the San José-San Ramón national highway. On 5 February the legislature had approved a trust to provide the necessary funds (US$473m) for the highway scheme, a key project under the new government’s development plan. Other infrastructure projects are also being readied. This should boost the position of the centre-left Partido Acción Ciudadana (PAC) government at a time when the private sector is raising concerns about job losses, continued high electricity costs and the entrenched fiscal deficit, which was 5.6% of GDP in 2014.