Inflation 2021 Puriscal, Costa Rica

Gas prices as of January 2022. The prices in US dollars for US gallon are $4.51, $4.40, $3.95 at today's exchange rate of ₡638.5

Warnings of rising inflation entered my awareness at the end of 2020. I keep records of our expenses in general categories, such as food, utilities, pets, etc. At the beginning of 2021 I decided to track prices of some individual items we regularly purchase. I was surprised to find a few items fluctuated in price over the year and others just continued to increase.

Super Mora in Puriscal, Costa Rica

It was a good exercise and I plan to continue the detailed tracking just to see how fast prices are going up. The dollar to colon exchange rate also increased. According to my records it began at ₡609 to the dollar and ended the year at ₡634 and as of this writing it continues to go up.

Super Mora, Puriscal taken in 2018

Here are a few of the items I tracked. The prices are from the end of 2021. To make this easy reading for my friends up north, I converted the prices to US dollar using the exchange rate of ₡634.

• Grass fed beef shanks - ₡3900/kg ($2.20/pound) up 18.18%
  
  
• Whole chicken - ₡2600/kg ($1.86/pound) up 20.93%
  
  
• Chicken leg/thighs - ₡2350/kg ($1.68/pound) up 27.3%
  
  
• Grass fed beef tenderloin - ₡9500/kg ($6.81/pound) up 5.56%
  
  
• Frozen Shrimp - ₡10650/kg ($7.64/pound) up 11.52%
  
  
• Café Volio (Costa Rica ground coffee) - 500g ₡2400 (about $3.79/pound) up 10.6%
  
  
• Butter unsalted, box with four 115g sticks - The price fluctuated through the year. It started at ₡3250, the high was ₡4600 and it ended at ₡3710 ($5.85) up 14.15%
  
  
• NutriSource can dog food chicken and rice - ₡2173 ($3.43) up 17.46% 
   
• NexGard, flea and tick medicine for dogs weighing between 25.1-50kg - The price went up and down during the year and ended at ₡20,190 ($31.85) up 16.52%
  
  
• Gas for the car took a big jump at the end of 2021. It used to take about ₡24,000 to fill the tank and in December it went up to ₡31,000 ($48.90) up 29.2%
  
  
• Propane for the dryer started out at ₡8500 ended at ₡9360 ($14.76) up 10.1%