The value of the dollar has once again reached its lowest level in almost 10 years.

The average price of the dollar against the colon experienced a new low this January 12, which extended the downward trend that had been ongoing since mid-2022 and intensified at the end of 2023. Thus, the value of the figure reached a new low. Almost a decade.

After this Friday’s session, the weighted average price of the currency on the Foreign Exchange Market (Monex) closed at ¢520.19, representing a decrease of ¢2.3 compared to the same day last week and a decrease of ¢0.62 compared to Thursday, January Is. 11. The last time the exchange rate was lower was on February 3, 2014, when it was ¢519.12.

During the five days of Monex operations this week, the value of the currency experienced various contradictions, as at the end of Monday it increased by ¢2.18 compared to last Friday, but from the same moment it began to decline until the value reached the current .

On Friday, the Central Bank of Costa Rica (BCCR) delayed the Monex session due to disruptions in digital signature services and the entity’s websites due to connectivity problems with the issuer.

Thus, the session started at 4:00 pm and ended at 5:00 pm instead of the usual time of 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm. Digital signature service is essential to authenticate transactions in the wholesale market.

Over the past 12 months, the colon has experienced a 12.8% appreciation against the dollar, compared to its value a year ago, when it was trading at ¢596.52 on the Monex and near ¢600 on the counter. . Financial institutions.

During this Friday’s session, $11.8 million were handled in 83 buy and sell actions, down from $16.68 million in 218 actions last week.

$184.28 million was traded in 919 deals throughout the week. In the past week, ahead of 2024, $90.12 million was negotiated, representing a more than double increase in the amount negotiated.

This week, BCCR resumed purchases to replenish its reserves, a common practice in the second half of 2023 that was not implemented in the first week of this year. Between Tuesday, January 9 and Thursday, January 11, the entity acquired $24.61 million in its operations.

On the other hand, the Central Bank acquired $86.82 million in the exchange market to meet the needs of the non-banking public sector (SPNB) between Monday and Thursday, up from about $56 million last week, given that Monex did not do this. Operated for holiday on Monday, January 1.

During the week, surpluses in operations over the counters of financial institutions also increased. This means that banks, mutuals, financial institutions and exchange houses presented more differences in foreign exchange purchases than sales.

Last week, institutions bought $505.47 million while they sold $454.57 million, a surplus of $50.9 million. Between Monday and Thursday of this week, bank acquisitions totaled $615.69 million, while sales totaled $410.44 million, meaning a surplus of $205.25 million, four times more than last week.

At 5:50 pm on Friday, public banks offered different selling prices for the North American currency. The National Bank sold the dollar at ¢524, the Bank of Costa Rica at ¢525, and the Popular Bank offered it at ¢528. Similarly, private banks such as BAC San Jose or Devivienda also presented different prices: the first sale was at ¢527, and at Devivienda it was at ¢528.