Francisco Chacón-González, attorney at Zurcher Odio & Raven in Costa Rica: “The low growth of the Costa Rican economy and unemployment are the most serious problems facing the country. These problems have been dragging on for several years and have been aggravated by the persistent fiscal deficit (half-attended) and the health measures adopted to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic. The four candidates that today appear to have the possibility of going on to the second round of elections (Figueres, Saborío, Alvarado and Chaves) agree that economic reactivation will only be possible with efforts from the private sector. This makes it necessary to loosen many of the ties that today limit companies’ possibilities of investing, taking risks and growing more. Linked to the above, the commitments derived from the recent agreement with the IMF have been questioned because they depend more on an already weak economy’s taxes and debt than on the necessary reform of the state apparatus, the elephant in the room. Few want to talk about this because of its electoral repercussions and the voting power that public employees may have in February…”