Internal Debt in Costa Rica: an alternative approach Part I

Abstract

The issue needs to be further motivated: economists, entrepreneurs, politicians and intellectuals agree that domestic debt is a serious problem that threatens Costa Rica's economic development. In the words of the internal debt report prepared by a group led by Eduardo Lizano, "the issue of government domestic debt has become the country's main economic problem" (Internal Debt: Documents, Notes and Comments, Academy of Central America, p. 9).
The general perception of the problem of domestic debt can be summed up as follows: the high fiscal deficits of recent years have led to an ongoing increase in domestic debt, already reaching more than a trillion colones. The service of this huge debt represents one third of the total expenditures of the Central Government, leaving very little to finance social programs such as education and health, as well as for the development of the infrastructure that the country needs for its development.