Colombia’s economic growth has slowed down to 3,7 percent in the second
trimester of 2008. That’s less than half than it was the same period last
year, the country’s statistics department announced.
The growth of Colombia’s GDP is the smallest in the past five years. The sector mostly responsible for the set back in growth was the construction sector, which has been the engine of the economic growth for the past years. The financial, agricultural and mining sector are still doing well, Colombian newspaper .
The financial crisis that has hit the United States and Europe seems to have damaged the increasing growth of Colombia’s economy since the first term of Colombian president Álvaro Uribe’s and the following economic effects of his ‘democratic security’ policy.
Finance minister Oscar Iván Zuluaga immediately announced it would lower the growth expectation from 5 to 4 percent. The minister warned Colombians that the combination of the stagnation of economic growth and the high inflation will result in “households having less money to consume what theywere able to last year.”
Zuluaga announced to make changes in Colombia’s 2009 budget to avoid a defecit.
