Colombia News | Colombia Reports
  • News
    • General
    • Analysis
    • War and peace
    • Elections
    • Economy
    • Culture
    • Sports
    • Science and Tech
  • Travel
    • General
    • Bogota
    • Medellin
    • Cali
    • Cartagena
    • Antioquia
    • Caribbean
    • Pacific
    • Coffee region
    • Amazon
    • Southwest Colombia
    • Northeast Colombia
    • Central Colombia
  • Data
    • Economy
    • Crime and security
    • War and peace
    • Development
    • Cities
    • Regions
    • Provinces
  • Profiles
    • Organized crime
    • Politics
    • Armed conflict
    • Economy
    • Sports
  • Lite
  • Opinion
  • About us
  • Support us
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
Colombia News | Colombia Reports
  • News
    • General
    • Analysis
    • War and peace
    • Elections
    • Economy
    • Culture
    • Sports
    • Science and Tech
  • Travel
    • General
    • Bogota
    • Medellin
    • Cali
    • Cartagena
    • Antioquia
    • Caribbean
    • Pacific
    • Coffee region
    • Amazon
    • Southwest Colombia
    • Northeast Colombia
    • Central Colombia
  • Data
    • Economy
    • Crime and security
    • War and peace
    • Development
    • Cities
    • Regions
    • Provinces
  • Profiles
    • Organized crime
    • Politics
    • Armed conflict
    • Economy
    • Sports
  • Lite
  • Opinion
Economy

Duque celebrates restart Colombia’s manufacturing, forgets sales collapse

by Adriaan Alsema August 17, 2020

President Ivan Duque on Sunday celebrated that 90% of Colombia’s factories have reopened, ignoring the fact that sales have collapsed.

In an interview with economic magazine Dinero, the president cherry-picked random statistics possibly hoping his incoherence would conceal the worst economic collapse in history.

Ignoring the unprecedented 15.7% drop of the country’s GDP in the second quarter of this year, Duque stressed that economy in the first quarter — before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country — had gone up 1.4%

Duque admitted that “growth will be negative this year, but said he was “looking at 2021 with the expectation of a growth above 5%.

Where the president got that projection is a mystery as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) expects the economy to contract between 6.1% and 7.9% this year and grow between 2.8% and 4.3% next year.

Oxford Economics lowered its 2020 economic growth projection from -6.6% to 8.5% and believed 2021 will see a 1.2% growth.

The economy is entering a deep recession, the worst in a century, driven by domestic confinement measures necessary to limit the spread of COVID-19, the global economic contraction, lower oil prices and tightening financial conditions.

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

Duque boasted that 90% of the country’s production activity restarted “from the supply point of view” after a full shutdown on March 25.

Domestic sales, however, dropped 14.2% in June compared to the same month last year and exports dropped 26% in June.

The president boasted that he had created 2,7 million jobs, but chose to ignore that unemployment more than doubled in June from 9.4% in 2019 to 19.8% this year.

Duque vowed to be creating more jobs in the construction of tertiary roads he was already obliged to build as part of a 2016 peace deal with demobilized FARC guerrillas.

The president and the trade ministry, which has so far only kicked off a “Buy Local” initiative to promote local consumption, appear to have no comprehensive economic recovery plan while alarms are ringing about an impending famine.

coronaviruseconomic recoveryIvan Duque

Trending

  • Medellin hospitals on brink of collapse amid COVID-19 surge

  • Colombia’s prosecution opens investigation against opposition presidential candidate

  • Bogota announces weekend lockdown, tougher mobility restrictions

Related articles

  • Reported COVID-19 infections in Colombia skyrocket

  • Can Colombia prevent another lockdown amid Brazilian COVID-19 threat?

  • The pandemic’s devastating impact on poverty in Colombia

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin
  • RSS

@2008-2019 - Colombia Reports. All Rights Reserved.
Powered by Digitale Zaken and Parrolabs


Back To Top