After 13 years, prices in future contracts of coffee in the New York market are over $ 210.
This upward momentum comes not only from lower yield forecasts by main world producers of coffee, but also speculation. Dollar weakness encourages financial traders to hide their capital into commodities and coffee is one of the most sought after for future operations.
According Anacafé, international grain buyers are delaying their purchases, waiting for prices to fall.
The international price of coffee is at record levels above $ 210 per bag. Directors of the National Coffee Association (Anacafe) explained that international buyers are expecting prices to fall and added that producers are finding it difficult to sell the product at these prices in the global market.
Investors might be seeing the Costa Rican Colon as a risky asset with good yields for “carry trade” transactions.
ALDESA reported that the ups and downs of the Costa Rican currency are being monitored by international investors, in addition to the recent comments by the new president of the Central Bank, who suggested more future intervention to ease the currency’s volatility.
In the province of Guanacaste, many real estate properties are being offered at much higher prices than their market value, in stark contrast with the sector’s depressed reality.
Attempting to put a stop to this practice, the Costa Rican Realtors Chamber (CCBR) has issued new internal regulations among its associates.
According to them, realtors must now sign a sale authorization agreement with the owner of the offered lot.
Most of the concessions to build hydroelectric power plants in the rivers of Chiriquí were granted without paying fees, for 50 years.
Sometime later, Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim entered the hydroelectricity market in Panama, offering almost $32 million for two of these concessions. This triggered a “hydroelectric fever”, with the creation of a secondary market between concessionaries and interested businessmen.
The recent increase in the value of the Costa Rican colon versus the dollar is worrisome, not only because there are no clear reasons to explain it, but also because it would be hard to contain it without causing greater problems.
In the past weeks, and without apparent reason, the price of the U.S. dollar in Costa Rica dropped considerably.
Last week we surveyed some financial operators as to why these movements where occurring, the general answer being: “we don’t know”.
The hydroelectric sector in Panama is a boiling pot where scores of projects are cooked, garnished with failures and speculation.
Eighty-nine concession requests are pending, 43 projects have had permissions denied or canceled by the developers and another 31 projects are in different phases of design or construction. Of the $2.3 billion that all these tentative projects represent, it is most likely that only half will be eventually realized.
The monetary authority of Guatemala, Banguat, continued to intervene in the market by selling dollars to address a rise that could be due to speculation.
Authorities and analysts argued about the causes for the appreciation of the US currency for which there are apparently no clear causes.
Yesterday, March 18, the reference exchange rate was Q8.10 for $1 US, while at some banks the selling price of the currency was being quoted between Q8.14 and Q8.18.