The World Bank has named Colombia as one of the countries which has created a buffer against a global recession, according to Bloomberg.
The World Bank made the proclamation in a report published Wednesday. World Bank Chief Economist for Latin America and the Caribbean Augusto de la Torre said Colombia is one of the nations with better performance during the last decade and has strengthened its macroeconomic and financial policy, adopted an inflation target, improved its position on public debt and has strict banking regulations, reported financial publication Portafolio.
De la Torre also said that France is more likely to default on its debts than Colombia. The economist said, “now markets perceive that the risk of default on sovereign debt of several Latin American countries, including Colombia, Chile and Peru, is lower than that of France.”
The International Monetary Fund was also positive about Colombia’s economic performance. The IMF foresees Colombian unemployment rate falling to 11% in 2012, down from 11.5% this year.
According to IMF Colombia representative Maria Angelica Arbelaez, during the IMF’s visit to the country a few months ago one could see “a sound and healthy economy which does not have high inflation nor many demand pressures. They observed that the agricultural sector is ‘bringing’ growth now and they see that performance in the first trimester was much better than expected, because of this the projection was changed.”
However, she said that Colombia must not let its guard down as it has to undertake structural reforms which will allow the unemployment rate to fall, improve its infrastructure and competitiveness, reduce transport costs, and increase the contribution of the agricultural sector to the GDP.
“Within the IMF we are one of the countries with good performance, which does not as have many weaknesses or risks as others… we see it a well-in-order country,” said Arbelaez.