Here we go again: Colombia’s central bank cut the Andean country’s benchmark rate for a fourth straight month. Policymakers trimmed a quarter point to 3.75 per cent – the lowest in Latin America.

In the longest easing cycle in over four years, starting in July last year, the very orthodox Banco de la República has chopped 150 basis points off its overnight lending rate in an attempt to reignite a slowing economy. Continue reading »

There is an adage in Spanish that goes: “Pain never lasts more than one hundred years.” At first sight, in any case, for the Colombian economy the pain seems to have lasted a quarter.

The recently-appointed finance minister, Mauricio Cárdenas, announced Thursday in Bogotá that Colombia’s gross domestic product grew 4.9 per cent in the second quarter, after expanding only 4.7 per cent in a rocky first quarter that was held back by weak growth of industry, oil output, and exports. Continue reading »