*Costa Rica’s national statistics institute (Inec) has released new figures which show the country posted annual deflation of -1.77% in December 2023 – the highest deflation of the last ten years. This follows 7.88% annual inflation in December 2022, 3.30% in December 2021, and 0.89% in December 2020. In monthly terms, inflation in December was 0.01%, up from -0.23% registered in November (when the annual rate was -1.64%) but up from October (0.21%) when the annual rate was -1.28%.