Costa Rican Colon

Overview

The Costa Rican Colon (CRC) is the currency of Costa Rica. The symbol for the Colon is ₡; the currency is subdivided into 100 centimos. Many places in Costa Rica accept the US Dollar unofficially. The name of the Colon is derived from the Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus (Cristobal Colon in Spanish).

The Colon has historically been tied to the USD based on a "crawling peg" so that exchange rates changed monthly. However, in 2006 that tie was severed as the Colon was becoming "undervalued". Now the Colon managed within a band of exchange rates relative to the USD.

Economy

• Costa Rica’s main income is from agriculture, tourism, and electronics.
• The service industry accounts for 68% of the country’s GDP.
• The main industries are textiles, clothing, plastic products, food processing, fertilizer, microprocessors, construction material, and medical equipment.
• Export products are coffee, bananas, sugar, seafood, medical equipment, ornamental plants, electronics, and pineapples.
• Import products are consumer goods, petroleum, raw as well as construction materials, and capital equipment.
• The unemployment rate is 7.8%.
• GDP growth is currently ~-1%.

History

• In 1896, the Costa Rican Peso was replaced by the Costa Rican Colon.
• In 1897, new coins were issued.
• Between 1917 and 1919, a subunit, the centavo, was introduced at 1/100 of a Colon. The country issued 5 centavos and 10 centavos in place of centimos. During that time 50 centavo coins were minted but never distributed.
• From 1914 to 1938, the International Bank of Costa Rica issued and distributed 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 Colones notes. In the same period the National Bank of Costa Rica became the official bank for issuing paper money; they printed notes from 1937 to 1949.
• During the 1950s the Central Bank of Costa Rica started issuing banknotes.
• In 1958, the Central Bank added 1,000 colon notes to the range.
• In 2010, Costa Rican Colon notes were replaced by a new issue.