*Costa Rica’s foreign trade ministry (Comex) has released new figures which show that Costa Rica’s exports in the first six months of 2023 totalled US$9.06bn, up 24% on the same period in 2022. According to Comex, the growth in the first half of 2023 is the second highest of the last five years. Comex minister Manuel Tovar said that the government “celebrates this growth as it shows that despite enormous challenges and the foreign geopolitical context, our country has been capable of increasing exports across all sectors and to all regions of the world.” He highlighted growth in free trade zone exports (+34%) and non free zones (régimen definitivo) (+9%) as well as agriculture (+14%). As regards markets, exports to North America posted the highest rise in the first half of 2023 compared with the same period in 2022 (30%), followed by Central America (28%), Europe (19%), Asia (19%), South America (16%) and the Caribbean (9%).
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