The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts strong overall economic growth for Colombia in 2011, to be surpassed only by that of Peru and Chile, according to a report released Friday.
According to the IMF’s most recent “World Economic Outlook Update,” which makes a number of projections for the world economy based on statistics from the first part of 2011, within the Latin American and Caribbean region, South America’s expansion is expected to be highest, at around 4.7%, and Colombia’s economic growth is forecasted to be around 5%.
Business magazine Portafolio attributed this high growth forecast to “high prices of raw materials and easy external financing conditions.”
Meanwhile, the IMF predicts only Peru and Chile to surpass Colombia, with respective economic growth of 6.2% and 6.6% for 2011.
The IMF report stated that as a whole, global growth, or growth of the world economy, “attained an annualized rate of 4.3 percent in the first quarter of 2011.”
According to Colombian Finance Minister Juan Carlos Echeverry, the growth of the country’s economy in the first quarter of 2011 was likely between 5% and 5.5%, and in accordance with IMF projections, is expected to stay steady at that rate.