In Costa Rica, investment funds grew 16% in 2009, in spite of losing almost 10% of their investors.
During the past financial crisis, the Costa Rican market turned out to be more stable than international markets, making it a relatively safer place for storing capital. Because of this, assets managed by investment funds grew to $2.48 billion.
However, the crisis affected small local investors, who were forced to abandon their investment funds.
Investors in Costa Rican government securities are expected to benefit from an upgrade in the nation's debt rating.
Standard & Poor's rating agency raised Costa Rica from BB "stable" to BB "positive". Although Costa Rica remains relatively vulnerable in meeting its short-term commitments, the trend is toward an improvement, it said.
The change is expected to lead to a greater return for those who have invested in government titles, and it will improve the government's ability to fulfill its near-term obligations.
Costa Rica's Cathay financial group is withdrawing its investment funds from the market, leaving 132 investors to seek other opportunities.
Geannina Gurdián, a Cathay manager, said the group found that management of the funds took up time that could be more profitably occupied in other activities.
Real-estate development funds are a novelty in Costa Rica's financial markets and they have been slow to take off.
Although the market regulator, Sugeval, has authorized 13 projects to far, only one is actually under construction.
Market specialists say that investors are wary of any new concept, but some complain that the system involves too much red tape.