After 25 years, the Colombian authorities decided to abandon the crawling peg exchange rate policy and implement a regime of nominal exchange rate bands. Initial conditions in Colombia contrast sharply with those of other cases in which bands were part of an ongoing effort to reduce high...

This 1999 Article IV Consultation highlights that the recession in Colombia intensified in 1999. The unemployment rate rose to a record 20 percent in September, while inflation fell to 91⁄2 percent and the current account deficit came down sharply. The fiscal position deteriorated markedly...

The Colombian economy proved resilient to the global financial crisis, and a solid recovery is under way. The pace of monetary tightening envisaged strikes the right balance between restraining credit growth and mitigating incentives for further capital inflows. A sudden acceleration of domestic...

Economic performance of Colombia deteriorated in 1998 and the recession has deepened further. The weak economic activity helped to lower the inflation and to narrow the external current account deficit. The fiscal position and the health of the financial sector continued to deteriorate. The...

In this paper, the structure of Colombia’s financial sector is analyzed and various risks of the financial sector are studied. Supervision of the financial system can be performed by supervisory architecture, banking supervision, various securities, and insurance policies. Systemic liquidity...

Colombia’s economy has been resilient to the adverse global shocks of recent years. Inflation has been subdued, credit growth has eased, and financial soundness indicators are strong. The strong balance of payments continues to put upward pressure on the Colombian peso. In 2013, growth is...

This paper estimates a model of financial markets in Colombia to examine: 1) the authorities’ control over domestic interest rates and the money stock; and 2) the effects of the crawling peg exchange rate policy on exchange rate expectations and domestic interest rates. The authorities...

During the past two years Latin America has received sizable international capital inflows. This paper compares the recent experience with that of the late 1970s. The analysis examines differences and similarities between the two episodes in three broad areas: domestic macroeconomic conditions...

This survey describes the timing and main macroeconomic results of the ambitious structural reforms adopted by Chile in the middle and late 1970s and by Colombia almost a decade later in the late 1980s and early 1990s. These reforms have enabled both countries to maintain vigorous real growth...

This paper assesses the impact on the poor of the macroeconomic adjustment program undertaken in 1985-86. It finds that program-induced changes in production, employment, and real incomes have benefited the poor, while the adverse impact of program-induced price changes was modest and was...