Costa Rican's can expect there fuel prices to take another major hike in January
For a country that is almost a stones throw from Venezuela , (major oil producer) it would seem the poor Costa Rican would get a break in gasoline. No such luck!
About 4 times this year the poor people have seen major gas increases. In fact back in July, a group of 60 commercial tractor trailers backed up the streets between El Coyol de Alajuela and Paseo Colón, on the western side of San José downtown to protest raising fuel costs
Costa Ricans are getting scared to go to sleep, not knowing what the gas price will be in the morning – from a US end, a whooping 50 cents per gallon. But hold on – and brace yourself when the new year hits as the Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos (Aresep), processes the latest request by the state refinery, Recope. Almost wondering if China has something to do with this, trying to get their Caribbean Refinery built? Hummm … interesting thought!
It is rumored the price of a liter of gasoline could shoot up around ¢24 colones (about 14 cents) regular ¢26, and diesel ¢23, as well as the price of natural gas, aviation fuel and kerosene. Or around 50 cents a gallon and that is a huge increase.
If this happened in anywhere in the world, particularly in the United States, riots would dominate the headlines.
Currently the price of a litre of super gasoline costs ¢588 (a little over a $1 or around $4.25 a gallon) regular ¢573 and diesel ¢511.
What kills me – Costa Ricans now know they can sleep for the next two weeks (Recop’s Christmas present I guess) – and brace themselves for an increase at the New Year.
This is really an INSANE Happy New Year.
These price increase are crazy, and are about half of what they were last July, clearly do not reflect the fact that oil is trading at less yet Costa Rica has not passed this on to its people, the Ticos. Huh, what gives?
One of the things that sorta takes me by surprise is the lack of interest – last July when the prices really shot up, very few of the local Costa Rica newspapers ask, how can this be? And only a few ran short stories about it – in fact, the bloggers were the ones that peppered the media about it.
What is worse – this is just another stab in the weak tourism market where they are more more sensitive to travel expenses. Not counting the fact of increase in transportation cost for both the private and public sectors, that filter down to hotels, goods, and even the small sports fishing captains.
gas prices are still on the rise today, we should go Alternative Fuel-‘-