Economic crisis
Costa Rica, like the rest of the world, is affected by the global economic crisis. Tourism is down, as well as exports and foreign investments. Here in Potrero, For Sale signs are seen everywhere, from empty lots to whole hotels. The president, Nobel Peace Prize winner Óscar Arias, presented a plan last month, called Plan Escudo, in hopes of avoiding a dramatic increase in the country’s unemployment and poverty levels. His plan calls for increasing pension payments by 15%, increasing the number of scholarships for students, reducing bank interest rates by 2%, giving out loans to small businesses, investing in road construction to generate new jobs, and encouraging employers to reduce the work week without laying off or reducing salaries (Arias believes it’s better, for a short time period, for two people to work and earn half as much than for one of them to lose their job permanently). As Rigo, my favorite taxi driver was saying the other night, “We’re fortunate to have an intelligent president.”
Friday, February 27, 2009