Director for the IMF’s Western Hemisphere department, Nicolás
Eyzaguirre, praised the strength of the Colombian economy and estimates
Colombia will be one of the first Latin American countries to find a
way out of the global financial crisis.
According to newspaper El Espectador, the IMF director complimented Colombia on its “solid macro-economic institutions” and how it has dealt with the financial crisis so far.
“We generally see Colombia in a priviliged position in Latin America and the Caribbean and among the countries that have retained more solid macro-economic institutions that saved in times of the economic boom and had slowing monetary policies when the economy grew a little too much and priviliged the health of its financial system,” the former Peruvian Minister of Finance said.
Eyzaguirre expects Latin America to slowly come out of the crisis in the middle of 2009 and thinks that Colombia will be one of the first to rise.
The IMF boss stressed Colombian policy makers to keep an eye on inflation to prevent the weakest of the social classes to suffer more.