Happy Friday from The Tico Times! We hope you have a wonderful end of the week. Here’s the news you should know as a new day starts in Costa Rica.
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The Legislative Assembly rejected a motion to accelerate the discussion of a bill which contains a loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The government says the resources would be used to exchange expensive debt for cheap debt. Costa Rica will lose access to the $250 million loan if the funding is not approved by January 6. More via La Nación.
Is there a lion on the loose in Costa Rica? Eight people in Puerto Viejo de Sarapiquí claim they’ve seen one, and the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC) is investigating, though they say they’ve seen no concrete evidence. We’ll have more on this later today.
Finance Minister Elian Villegas says Costa Rica would reduce government expenditures by 1.5% of (GDP) as part of efforts to negotiate a loan of $1.75 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Officials have not yet proposed laws to achieve this reduction. More via La Nación.
Intel will invest $350 million over the next three years to restart assembly operations in Costa Rica. This will generate at least 200 new jobs in Costa Rica, according to the Presidency. Read more here.
Friday weather forecast, per the National Meteorological Institute: The country will be coming out of the influence of the cold surge # 5. In the morning, there will be rainy conditions in the Caribbean and the North Zone. During the afternoon and night, rainfall will decrease in the Caribbean and Northern Zone, as well as strong gusts of wind. In the afternoon, there will be rains and showers in the Central and South Pacific. In the Central Valley, there will be partial cloudiness with possible isolated rains.
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We’ll have more news throughout the day, so keep checking The Tico Times home page for more.
