“Any doubts about the bank’s inflation-fighting intentions have been laid to rest today,” said economist Alberto Ramos at Goldman Sachs Group to Bloomberg: “The board was divided and they didn’t hide that. When the finance minister, a voting member of the board, says publicly not to raise rates and it does it anyway, it reinforces credibility and shows the bank doesn’t bow to political pressure.”The bank said friday that it was forced to raise rates to control inflation. Analysts who have provided the bank with forecasts agree the pace of rising prices is picking up and may continue for a year or more, the bank said. Without the increase, Colombia would see a growing threat to economic growth and employment, it said.The bank didn’t give any indications of the direction it would take in the coming months.
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