Costa Rica recorded negative annual inflation for another month in February 2026, with overall prices down 2.73 percent from the same period a year earlier. The National Institute of Statistics and Censuses released the figures on March 6. The consumer price index dropped 0.22 percent in February compared with January. Over the first two months of the year, the index fell 1.18 percent.
This marks the latest sign of persistent deflation in the country. Costa Rica closed 2025 with annual inflation at -1.23 percent, the second negative reading in the past decade. The current rate sits well below the Central Bank’s target range of 2 percent to 4 percent and represents the fourth straight year outside that band.
Of the 289 goods and services tracked in the index, 39 percent saw price drops, 45 percent rose, and 16 percent stayed the same. The biggest downward pressure came from lower costs for gasoline, eggs, new automobiles, movie tickets, rice, papaya, cookies and watermelon.
The monthly decline of 0.22 percent in February follows a sharp 0.96 percent drop in January, the largest single-month fall since 1983. Central Bank officials and the OECD project inflation will gradually climb and return to the target range sometime in 2027. The data reflects ongoing drops in key everyday items, particularly fuel and several food staples, that continue to pull the overall index lower.
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