The Colombian economy is officially in recession, government statistics
agency DANE announced Thursday. The country’s economy contracted for
the second consecutive quarter, this time with 0.6 percent.
In the last three months of 2008, the economy shrunk 0.7 percent.
The official recession does not come as a surprise as figures on the drop of production and export already made an economic growth in this time of global financial crisis very unlikely.
Total exports dropped 13 percent in the first quarter to
$7.5 billion from a year earlier led by oil and nickel. The
urban jobless rate rose to 14.9 percent in January, the highest
level since the same month in 2006.
It is the first time in ten years the Colombian economy enters recession.
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