Costa Rica Statutory legal interest (interés legal)

What this value means

Costa Rica fixes no percentage in statute — the legal rate is a published index and it moves WEEKLY. COMMERCIAL DEBTS (Código de Comercio art. 497, in the wording given by art. 168.h of Ley 7558 de 3 de noviembre de 1995): the supplementary legal rate is the BCCR Tasa Básica Pasiva for colón obligations and the 'prime rate' for US-dollar obligations, and the article expressly says these rates 'podrán utilizarse en toda clase de obligaciones mercantiles, incluyendo las documentadas en títulos valores'. MORA: Código de Comercio art. 498 — 'Los intereses moratorios serán iguales a los intereses corrientes, salvo pacto en contrario'; where both are agreed, the moratory rate may not exceed the agreed running rate by more than 30%, and where only moratory interest is agreed it may not exceed the legal rate of art. 497 by more than 30%. So the practical commercial default-interest ceiling absent an agreed running rate is TBP x 1.30. CIVIL DEBTS ARE ON A DIFFERENT REFERENCE: Código Civil art. 1163, as amended by Ley 7201 de 10 de octubre de 1990 and still in the consolidated text — 'Cuando la tasa de interés no hubiere sido fijada por los contratantes, la obligación devengará el interés legal, que es igual al que pague el Banco Nacional de Costa Rica por los certificados de depósito a seis meses plazo, para la moneda de que se trate' — i.e. a commercial bank's own posted six-month CD rate, which the creditor must evidence for the period claimed, not the BCCR index; art. 1164 then computes moratory interest at the same rate accrued at maturity absent agreement. Costa Rican commentary treats art. 497 as having displaced art. 1163 in practice, but both texts remain in the official consolidation, so identify whether the debt is civil or mercantile before choosing the reference. CURRENCY MATTERS: the TBP applies only to colón obligations; dollar obligations run at the prime rate under art. 497 — the BCCR's own Tasa Efectiva en Dólares (3,03%) is a separate published indicator and is not the art. 497 reference. WEEKLY RE-FIXING: the BCCR calculates the TBP from the previous Wednesday-to-Tuesday deposit window, publishes it on Wednesdays ('La tasa resultante se divulgará los días miércoles de cada semana o de ser éste feriado el siguiente día hábil') and it takes effect the following Thursday. NEXT FIXING: published Wednesday 12 August 2026, in force from Thursday 13 August 2026 — this value is a one-week figure, so always re-read it before computing interest for a current period. Retrieval note: the gee.bccr.fi.cr cuadro pages (CodCuadro 17) and sdd.bccr.fi.cr return error pages or empty shells to automated fetchers; the live TBP and TED are rendered on the BCCR home page. The SCIJ/SINALEVI legal portal is a single-page app that serves no article text to fetchers — the operative wording above was read from the PGR's static copy of Ley 7558 at pgrweb.go.cr/DOCS/NORMAS/1/VIGENTE/L/1990-1999/1995-1999/1995/9FE0/352AB.HTML. UPDATE (weekly refix applied 2026-08-21): NEXT FIXING: published Wednesday 26 August 2026, in force Thursday 27 August 2026 (the 12-Aug fixing held 3.65; the 19-Aug fixing cut to 3.63 effective 20 Aug). RETRIEVAL: BCCR retired the SharePoint site — https://www.bccr.fi.cr/SitePages/Inicio.aspx now 404s (AEM site as of Aug 2026); the current TBP is readable without JS at https://www.bccr.fi.cr/content/bccr/cr/es/home/jcr:content/root/container/container/economicindicators/item_1774647998142.indicator.423.json (indicator 423; TED is indicator 23698 at item_1774905757886.indicator.23698.json) but it returns ONLY the latest value and ignores all date parameters. The sdd cuadro's backing API (apim.bccr.fi.cr/SDDE/api/Bccr.GE.SDDE.IndicadoresSitioExterno.GrupoVariables.API/CuadroGrupoVariables/ObtenerDatosCuadro?IdGrupoVariable=475&FechaInicio=Y-M-D&FechaFin=Y-M-D&CantidadSeriesAMostrar=3) returns 500 to curl even with Origin/Referer spoofed — TBP history needs a real browser, where the cuadro's Fecha picker shows a 3-day window ending at the chosen date (Kendo segmented input: click the day segment and type digits without slashes).

Earlier values

Get it programmatically

curl https://latamref.dev/v1/cr/statutory-interest
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History:    curl https://latamref.dev/v1/cr/statutory-interest/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://latamref.dev/provenance/cr/statutory-interest

Other Costa Rica series: BCCR monetary policy rate (TPM) · IVA standard rate · VAT registration threshold · Minimum wage (lowest generic monthly rate) · Public holidays · CPI inflation (year-on-year) · Corporate income tax rate · Withholding tax rates · Personal income tax brackets · Statutory social-insurance contributions

The same figure elsewhere: Dominican Republic · Ecuador · El Salvador · Guatemala · Guyana · all 22