NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) June 4, 2007--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that it affirmed its 'BB' long-term foreign, 'BB+' long-term local, and 'B' short-term currency sovereign credit ratings on the Republic of Costa Rica. The outlook on the long-term ratings is stable. According to Standard&Poor's credit analyst Joydeep Mukherji, the ratings on Costa Rica reflect good economic growth and rising tax revenue in 2007, modestly reducing the government's debt burden. Growth could exceed 6%, helping to cut the general government debt burden to about 36% of GDP in 2007, down from 49% in 2003 (Standard&Poor's excludes the social security system's holdings of sovereign debt in calculating the debt burden). "Costa Rica's sovereign creditworthiness
