José Manuel Restrepo warned that inflation in Colombia, still high in front of the region, slows down the expected interest rates.
The former Minister of Finance José Manuel Restrepo warns that the increase in inflation in August to 5.10%, according to the DANE, can stop the reduction of interest rates of the Bank of the Republic and jeopardize investment and economic growth.
According to the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE), the Inflation in Colombia rose in August and reached an annual variation of 5.10 %, overcoming 5 %. The monthly variation of the CPI was 0.19 %, while in the run of the year it reached 4.22 %.
In dialogue with The FM, The former Finance Minister José Manuel Restrepo warned that he Result is not encouraging because it shows a rebound in front of the previous month.
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“In last month Annualized inflation was of the order of 4.90 % And in this month it is 5.1 %. An acceleration process is being given in inflation, ”he said.
As explained, The increase is linked to the behavior of food prices, which record inflation annualized close to 6.1 %.
“This means that there are pressures that will continue to raise prices in the economy,” he added.
Interest rates and Banco de la República
Restrepo also warned that this dynamic It could stop the rate of reduction of interest rates of the Bank of the Republic.
“When that happens, the bank can make the decision not to accelerate the decrease in monetary policy interest rates, which impacts the investment and with it the growth of the economy,” he explained.
The former minister stressed that the panorama is complicated by the imbalance in public finances. and of the forecasts to close this year with the fiscal deficit and the highest public debt in the history of the country ”.
Finally, he warned that inflation in Colombia is still high in front of the region. “Despite the reductions, it is still excessively high comparatively against other Latin American countries and from the world. To persist this fiscal unfortunate will be very difficult to return to the target range of the Bank of the Republic. ”
Run and annual year inflation
According to the DANE, between January and August, the CPI accumulated a variation of 4.22 %. Within this period, the greatest pressure came from food and non -alcoholic beverages, with increases in products such as tomato (50.64 %), coffee (47.43 %) and onion (45.30 %).
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In the annual measurement, the items that contributed the most to the result of 5.10 % were accommodation, water, electricity, gas and fuels, as well as food. However, the increase in education (7.87 %), restaurants and hotels (7.78 %) was highlighted and hot drinks such as coffee, tea and chocolate (11.54 %).
For its part, the Division of Information and Communication reported an annual variation of -0.85 %, dragged by the fall in prices in mobile telephony and related services (-24.60 %).
Source: Integrated information system
