This Friday, January 7th, the Central Bank of Costa Rica (BCCR) published, on its website and in the official newspaper La Gaceta, the new maximum annual interest rates for credit operations in Colones, US dollars and others.
The calculation of the maximum annual interest rates and their publication must be carried out by the Central Bank in the first week of January and July of each year, in accordance with the provisions of article 36 bis of Law No. 7472 on the Promotion of Competition and Effective Defense of the Consumer, added by Law N ° 9859 of June 11, 2020. The rates can be consulted on the BCCR website, in the following route: Economic Indicators / Interest rates / Interest rates calculated by the BCCR / Maximum annual interest rates.
Simple average interest rates
To calculate the new interest rates, the Central Bank used the simple average of the monthly negotiated active interest rates for the previous 12 months (in this case, for the period January 2021 – December 2021).
The interest rate for each month is the weighted average of the active interest rates for all credit operations carried out during the respective month. The weighting is based on the amount of the corresponding transaction.
