Colombian economy appears headed for flat growth, if not a slowdown, say analysts as in the first seven months of 2008 production dipped 0.2 percent and total sales 0.4 percent over last year.
While sectors like food, paper and plastic grew more than four percent, other products, including leather, wood, iron and automobiles saw falls of greater than 10 percent, according to National Businessmen’s Association numbers reported by El Colombiano.
Former Finance Minister Juan Camilo Restrepo Salazar described the situation as worrying because, for the first time in many months, many sectors are seeing negative growth rates.
“Under that perspective, I think we’re going to have very modest growth, at 4 percent, and certainly much slower when compared to last year. If construction and trade are weak, I believe that there is a very big slowdown that can affect the outcome of next year,” he told the newspaper.