In Central America, Fuentes of Guatemala is at first with 5.1, followed by Handal of El Salvador, then Zuniga of Costa Rica and Alexander of Panama at 5.9, and then by the Honduran and Nicaraguan Ministers at 3.8 and 3.5 respectively.
A panel of 140 economists from the region responded via email to a survey by AmericaEconomia Intelligence in which they were asked to give their opinion about the performance of the public finance.
The government will transfer $17.5 million to Agricultural Credit Bank of Cartago (Bancredito) as part of a plan to provide capital for State banks.
The total transfer will be $117.5 million to the three State banks. The Government had already announced $50 million in capital for the National Bank and the Bank of Costa Rica
The President of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias, ruled out pushing through a tax reform in the last two years of his presidency.
The Government of Costa Rica had planned to collect an additional $700 million a year by making some modifications to sales and income taxes, by taxing limited liability companies and creating a tax for financial transactions.
The only project to be pushed through is a tax on luxury homes which will be used in the fight against poverty.
At the close of July there was a budget surplus of $271 million in spite of the economic slowdown.
This is because there has been a reduction in tax evasion, according to reports from the Minister of Finance, Guillermo Zuniga.
The Minister said that earnings from taxes grew by 25.8% in the first seven months of the year, the same period in which Costa Rica has felt the effects of the economic difficulties in the United States, its main trading partner.
The government issued a decree which simplifies procedures and provides tax exempts on agricultural supplies and equipment.
"This decree establishes very clear guidelines, very clear procedures and expands the opportunity for these groups to access equipment, machinery, but most of all this decree provides legal security to the business sector of Costa Rica through a very transparent process," indicated the Minister of Finance, Guillermo Zuñiga.
Boosted by a 25 percent increase in tax income, Costa Rica's government recorded a US$230 million surplus for the first half of the year.
"This is very good news. The surplus is four times what is was in the first half of 2007," Finance Minister Guillermo Zúñiga told a press conference.
Thanks to the surplus, Zúñiga said the government was well placed to meet its upcoming obligations in terms of wage increases, investment, and security and public-health programs.
Costa Rica recorded a fiscal surplus of US$173 million in the first four months of the year, providing the government with more funds to invest in security and agriculture, Finance Minister Guillermo Zúñiga said.
Thanks to the surplus, Costa Rican will face no problems in achieving its state spending objectives for this year, Zúñiga said. Besides agriculture and security, more funds would also be available to fight poverty.
Costa Rican legislators are calling on the administration of Oscar Arias to grant the Central Bank more regulatory powers.
Commercial banks remain wary of some of the proposed measures, such as one that would impose the minimum reserve requirement on Banco Popular.
Banco Popular opposes the restriction because of what it describes as the social content of much of its lending.
For the first time in more than five decades, Costa Rica ended 2007 with a fiscal surplus of $173.5 million, equivalent to 0.65 percent of gross domestic product,the Ministry of Finance reported today.
Guillermo Zuniga, minister of this portfolio, explained in a press conference that this surplus is due to a strong increase in the collection of taxes, which this year totaled 4,105 million dollars, 28.5 percent more than in 2006.