BCH President Mondragón explained, “the IMF mission arrives in the country next week to make the quarterly assessment of the ‘Stand By’ program we have subscribed to since October of 2010”. “It is a program of 18 months which ends in March, and they will be making an evaluation for the end of the 2011 year.”

According to Mondragón, the BCH evaluation of the last quarter of the previous year is important because the mission is going to, “…see we kept within agreed targets in the economic agenda and the program we subscribed to…” and, “…all of the indicators are that there has been an improvement in the economy, and that we can look positively toward the future.”

The officer outlined that economic growth in the previous year, “closed in around 3.4 percent; inflation was less than what we had planned under the program. There was an accumulation of international reserves for the second consecutive year.” “Already in the past two years, the country has accumulated more than 700 million dollars in reserves, which is also extremely important,” she said.

“Commerce has seen a revival, exports have grown, remittances grew despite the slowdown in the economy of the United States, and there are other important factors…” she added. “…all these are signs that the economy is recovering…”