Banco Nacional Ups US
Dollar Sell Rate By ˘5
The Banco Nacional (BN)
yesterday opened the
dollar sell rate
slightly more than ˘5
colones over the close
on Tuesday, moving the
dollars/colones sell
rate from the ˘495.75 to
˘501 or ˘5.25 colones,
slightly higher that the
rate increase of ˘4.75
colones set by the Banco
Central (Central Bank).
The other state bank,
Banco de Costa Rica (BCR),
however, the increase
was on average ˘1 colon
in contrast to the ˘5 of
the Banco Nacional.
The two state banks
jointly control the
majority of the banking
operations in the
country, which meant
that the remaining
financial institutions
followed the lead.
The private banks like
the HSBC, Promérica and
Financiera Desyfin moved
the rate ˘1, while
Scotiabank moved only
˘0.25 both for the sell
and buy of dollars.
Banco Lafise move it
sell rate up by ˘1.5
while Banco BCT and
Cuscatlan ˘1.25.
The reference rate set
by the Banco Central at
opening this morning is
˘498.51 for the sell and
˘492.05 for the buy.
The reference dollar
sell rate on May 8,
2007, was ˘520.72,
dropping overnight to
˘505.15 November 23,
2007, hitting a low of
˘496.83 on April 27,
2008, according to the
Banco Central
"Tipo de cambio de venta
del dólar de los Estados
Unidos de América"
What the move means in
real terms is that
holders of US dollars
benefit by the move in
the exchange rate. For
instance, it took
˘490.250 colones to buy
a us$1.000 on Tuesday,
which is today worth
˘495.000 colones or a
different of ˘4.750
colones.
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