Headquarters of the Bank of the Republic, in Bogotá (Colombia), on July 28, 2022.Nathalia Angarita (Bloomberg)
The Central Bank of Colombia raises its interest rates from 11% to 12%, as announced this Friday by the Bank's manager, Orlando Villar.
This rate is the one with which the Bank lends money to other financial entities and, therefore, impacts the cost of borrowing in Colombia.
The board of directors of the Banco de la República met the expectations of most analysts, who expected it to maintain the rate of increase of 100 basis points that it has maintained since the August meeting.
However, two of the seven members voted divergently: one to increase the rate more, and another to do it less.
This dispersion of the vote shows that the forecasts are not entirely aligned with each other.
And it contrasts with the recent previous decision, at the end of October, which was given unanimously.
The Finance Minister, José Antonio Ocampo, was present at the announcement, made before the media and financial analysts.
In September he had had the only dissenting vote, against raising 100 basis points as defined by all his colleagues on the board, but in October he sided with them.
Villar assured that they made the decision based on the most recent inflation data, which show that up to November the cost of living in the country has increased by 12.53%.
It is a figure more than four times higher than what – for the entity's experts – is good for the economy, and it is the inflation target towards which their interest rate decisions point: 3%.
Information in development...
Subscribe here
to the EL PAÍS newsletter on Colombia and receive all the latest information on the country.
