Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider, LVA Indices (LVA), the leading fixed income index and pricing provider in Chile, and Proveedor Integral de Precios (PiP), a leading index and pricing provider in Latin America, today announced the launch of four bond indexes for Costa Rica as part of the Dow Jones LATixx index family. These indexes are designed to measure the performance of the Costa Rican government’s debt instruments in local currency and U.S. dollars.
The Dow Jones LATixx Indexes are designed to serve as a basis for investment products such as exchange-traded funds, structured products, futures and options.
“As interest in Costa Rica’s growing economy increases, these indexes will offer investors an opportunity to measure the government’s bond market, both in local currency as well as in U.S. dollars,” said Michael A. Petronella, President, Dow Jones Indexes. “These are the first indexes in the series that measures Costa Rica, specifically.”
“These indexes will offer investors from all over the world an opportunity to observe the emerging economy of Costa Rica in a transparent and understandable way,” said Eduardo Rodriguez, CEO, PiP at Centro America.
"The new indexes will provide local investment managers with the ability to benchmark the performance of their portfolios against Costa Rican government bonds, a critical factor in measuring and analyzing results,” said Gregorio Gonzalez, CEO, LVA Indices.
The new indexes are:
- the Dow Jones LATixx Costa Rica Government Colones Fixed Rate Index, which includes all standardized fixed long-term-rate debt instruments, issued in the local market by Costa Rican public financial institutions (Finance Ministry, Central Bank) in local currency, with a maturity term of more than 360 days;
- the Dow Jones LATixx Costa Rica Government Colones Variable Rate Index, which Includes all standardized variable long-term-rate debt instruments, issued in the local market by Costa Rican public financial institutions (Finance Ministry, Central Bank) in local currency, with a maturity term of more than 360 days;
- the Dow Jones LATixx Costa Rica Government U.S. Dollar Fixed Rate Index, which includes all standardized fixed long-term-rate debt instruments, issued in the local market by Costa Rican public financial institutions (Finance Ministry, Central Bank) in U.S. dollars, with a maturity term of more than 360 days; and
- the Dow Jones LATixx Costa Rica Government U.S. Dollar Variable Rate Index, which includes all standardized variable long-term-rate debt instruments, issued in the local by Costa Rican public financial institutions (Finance Ministry, Central Bank) in U.S. dollars, with a maturity term of more than 360 days.
The new indexes are liquidity weighted, with weights rebalanced monthly.
The initial publication date of the new Costa Rica indexes is June 6, 2011. Back-tested historical data is available back to September 1, 2009, with the base date of August 31, 2009, and an initial value set to 1000.0.
As of May 31, 2011:
- the Dow Jones LATixx Costa Rica Government Colones Fixed Rate Index had a year-to-date performance of 5.03%;
- the Dow Jones LATixx Costa Rica Government Colones Variable Rate Index had a year-to-date performance of 3.93%;
- the Dow Jones LATixx Costa Rica Government U.S. Dollar Fixed Rate Index had a year-to-date performance of 2.14%; and
- the Dow Jones LATixx Costa Rica Government U.S. Dollar Variable Rate Index had a year-to-date performance of 1.76%.
For more information on the Dow Jones LATixx Indexes, please visit www.djindexes.com.