Due to weak competition in the local market, the prices of goods and services in the basic basket are significantly higher in Costa Rica than in nearby countries.
A report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), called the "Economic Study on Costa Rica", concludes that consumers in the country pay higher prices for milk, rice, vehicles and Internet services.
Six years after the market opened, authorities are assessing whether competition is effective in order to eliminate caps and free up rates for mobile telephony and the internet.
The methodology for determining whether or not there is effective or genuine competition in the telecommunications market has already been approved and the Telecommunications Regulator expects to have the results no later than the end of the year.
The Ministry of Environment in Costa Rica is considering raising the ceiling on the amount of energy private generators are allowed to produce above the current 15%, but these companies are demanding the elimination of the ceiling and free competition.
Private power generation companies are opposed to pricing and limits that are imposed on the participation and sale of power in the country, and consider it a "discriminatory act".
Operators of the telecommunications market in Costa Rica are calling for intervention by the regulator in rates to be removed and for operations to be carried out within a framework of real commercial freedom.
After more than six years of having promoted laws which opened up the telecommunications market in Costa Rica, no operator has the ability to unilaterally set final prices or manipulate conditions in the telecommunications market.
The industry is calling for effective competition to be allowed with the market setting rates and not the Telecommunications Regulator.
Operators of telephony and internet services are asking for the establishment of maximum rates by the Superintendencia de Telecomunicaciones (Sutel) to be eliminated, applying what is contemplated in the Telecommunications Act, which allows the possibility of not intervening in the setting of rates.