Economy

Manufacturing is the predominant economic activity, engaging roughly a fifth of the working population. Costa Rica's largest export is computer mircroprocessors. Other areas of manufacturing include food-processing and the making of textiles and wearing apparel, wood products, chemicals and fertilizers, pottery, and simple metalwares. Much of the modern industrial development stems from large foreign investments and from increased production for export to other members of the Central American Common Market.

Agriculture is also an important economic activity. Coffee and bananas are the agricultural mainstays and provide most of the country's agricultural exports. The coffee crop comes primarily from small farms in the Meseta Central. Bananas, in contrast, are produced almost entirely on large, foreign-owned plantations, mainly along the southern Pacific coast. Other exports include beef, sugar, and cacao. Foods grown for local consumption include rice, corn, and beans.

The lumbering and fishing industries are small but growing. They are based on extensive tropical forests and bountiful coastal waters. Mining is of little significance.

Costa Rica's currency unit is the Costa Rican colón.

As in much of Central America, transportation is poorly developed. Railways serve primarily the main ports, the banana-growing areas, and the capital. Few of the roads other than those linking the major cities are paved. The Pan American Highway crosses the nation along the Pacific coast, linking Costa Rica with Nicaragua and Panama. The chief ports are Puerto Limón, on the Caribbean, and Puntarenas and Caldera, on the Pacific. San José's airport is the nation's largest.