Colombia is prepared to confront the current economic crisis facing international markets, said the country’s finance minister on W Radio.
Finance Minister Juan Carlos Echeverry said “It would be an illusion to say that Colombia is shielded but we do have the apparatus to stay afloat.”
Echeverry said Colombia has international reserves of almost $40 billion which will not allow the turbulence affecting the United States and Europe to throw the Colombian economy off course.
According to the minister, the country has $32 billion in international reserves and the International Monetary Fund awarded Colombia contingency credit $6.5 billion. Added to this, the government put away $8.37 billion in pesos in the treasury, and will issue a bond of $2 billion which will be made available to pay external debt.
Other buffers the government has against a possible backlash from the international economic crisis is that public finances are in good order, families are not heavily in debt and businesses are showing strength.