Colombia’s Congress voted on Thursday to allow the government to increase the debt by US$4.5 billion, in dollar-demoninated bonds.
The Finance Ministry released a statement saying that this issuance of new bonds will allow the government to take action if the economic situation worsens.
The additional debt is a response to the global financial crisis and the resultant high fiscal deficit, and will bring the consolidated deficit for 2010 to 3.4% of GDP, increasing from 2.6% in 2009.