Central Bank intervened with $45 million in MONEX

The Banco Central de Costa Rica (BCCR) – Costa Rica’s Central Bank – intervened in the Foreign Currency Market (MONEX) for the fourth day in a row to keep the dollar exchange rate from topping 700 at commercial banks.

The Thursday intervention cost US$45 million, bringing the total cost of the week’s stabilisation activities to US$70 million. The Central Bank acted more in a single day than it did in the entire year of 2021, when stabilising operations totaled US$35 million.

President Rodrigo Chaves recently chastised Carlos Alvarado’s government for allegedly spending $2.3 billion in international reserves to intervene, while the Central Bank indicated that it had the appropriate reserves.

Financial analysts claim that the interventions will keep the currency rate stable but will not reduce current pressure, and that the operations reflect market uncertainty.