The economy of Colombia expanded by 13.2% in the third quarter, compared to the same period last year, a figure higher than expected by the market that shows an accelerated recovery of the country’s productive activity after the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, reported the Tuesday the Government.
According to the median of a recent Reuters poll, the market expected year-on-year growth of Gross domestic product (START) of 12% between July and September.
The result was also above the projection of the central bank for that period, 12.7%, which would lead the monetary authority to maintain the magnitude of the interest rate increase at its December meeting to contain pressures on consumer prices.
“Overall, the key message from this data release is that Colombia’s economy is coming out of the crisis stronger than most in the region,” wrote Nikhil Sanghani, emerging markets economist at Capital Economics.
The Colombian Central Bank began an upward cycle in its reference interest rate in September with an initial increase of 25 basis points, which in October accelerated to 50 basis points to a current 2.50% to try to cool the higher inflationary pressures.
“This would maintain the rate of (increase of) 50 basis points in December waiting to see what happens with inflation,” said Sergio Olarte, chief economist for Colombia at Scotiabank.
By economic activities, the largest expansions in the third quarter occurred in commerce with 33.8%; in artistic and entertainment activities with 32%; in manufacturing industries with 18.8% and in the information and communications sector with 13.2 percent.
In addition, much of the variation in the third quarter was explained by a lower comparison base compared to the same period of the previous year, when the economy contracted by 8.4% during the worst of the crisis caused by lockdowns and quarantines to counteract the contagion of Covid-19.
“The growth momentum of the economy in the third quarter is relatively much stronger to the extent that that of the second was slowed down by the effects of the national unemployment and the situation of the logical third epidemic peak, especially in manufacturing production and activities of commerce of the economy “, said the director of DANE, Juan Daniel Oviedo.
In quarterly terms, the START between July and September it expanded by 5.7%, compared to the period between April and June.
Meanwhile, between January and September the START accumulated a growth of 10.3%, compared to a contraction of 8.1% in the same period of 2020.
The Central Bank’s technical team in October revised its growth projection for the fourth largest economy in Latin America for this year to 9.8%, from a previous 8.6 percent.
For its part, the Colombian government raised its GDP expansion goal to 8.5% from an original 6%.
In addition, for 2022 the issuing bank increased the growth estimate for the economy to 4.7% from 3.9 percent.
Before knowing the data of the third quarterThe Reuters poll showed that the issuing bank would continue the process of increasing the interest rate until it reached 2.75% at the end of this year and 4.50% at the end of 2022.
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Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx