Gas in Costa Rica Climbs to Its Highest Price Ever: What Products Will Be More Expensive?

As we reported two weeks ago, fuel prices in Costa Rica will rise before the end of March 2022. Starting March 31st, people in the country will be paying on average 30% more for their gasoline than what they paid at the beginning of January.

After Recope, the country’s oil refinery, asked for yet another increase in the price when it was already at an all-time high, the Public Service Regulating Authority (Aresep, its acronym in Spanish) accepted. And now, it has been published in the official gazette.

This means that from the last day of March until there’s a new change in price, gas in Costa Rica will be the most expensive it has ever been, in nominal sense. And with that, the cost of many products and services will skyrocket again.

These are the new fuel prices effective from March 31, 2022:

• Regular gasoline: ₡889 per liter (27,5% more expensive than in January)

• Super gasoline: ₡909 per liter (27,3% more expensive than in January)

• Diesel: ₡845 per liter (38,5% more expensive than in January)

This means that, if you have a car that runs on regular gasoline, what ₡20,000 bought at the start of the year now will cost ₡25,500.

The effect of gas on consumer prices

The context currently in Costa Rica is that inflation hit its second-highest level in ten years back in February 2022. It is also possible that March metrics —which will be published next week— confirm that prices have increased more since then.

The consumer price index (CPI) of Costa Rica reached a 4.90% expansion back in February, mostly driven by tensions between Russia and Ukraine which later derived in the Russian invasion of its neighboring country.

Aside from gasoline, some products that increased in price in February in Costa Rica were airplane tickets, coffee, tomatoes, avocados, tuna, milk, secondary education, and beans. Public transport prices also increased, but after the measurement.

With the new increase in the price of gas, it is expected that some products and services will get more expensive in the next few weeks. According to the local newspaper CRHoy, the commerce sector will likely see an increase in prices.

Food is likely to be more costly in April, as well as public transport. The bus sector warned some weeks ago that an increase in the price of gasoline would mean that ticket prices would be 16% more expensive, even though they increased them this month.

The Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica is currently reviewing a bill to lower fuel prices presented by the government. The law would give discounts on fuel to some sectors and aims to freeze the single tax on gasoline for at least a year.