NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) Nov. 13, 2012--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services today said it assigned its 'BB+' foreign currency senior unsecured debt rating on the Republic of Costa Rica's planned bond issue. We also assigned a '2' recovery rating, reflecting our expectation of substantial (70%-90%) recovery in the event of default. The planned note issue under Rule 144A Reg. S is expected to be in the range of $500 million to $1 billion. Our ratings on Costa Rica are constrained by the country's limited monetary flexibility and rising fiscal pressures. Costa Rica's fiscal deficit (including the central government, the central bank, and decentralized government entities) will likely exceed 4% of GDP this year. The fiscal deficit was 4.7% of
