Colombia’s peso on Monday fluctuated between gains and losses as concern the central bank will buy dollars in the spot market to ease gains in the currency’s world-beating rally offset increases in commodities.
The currency fell 0.1 percent to 1,819.8 per dollar at 10:58 a.m. New York time, from 1,817.48 on Aug. 27. The peso has risen 12.3 percent this year, the best performance among all currencies tracked by Bloomberg. It is up 1.3 percent in August.
Colombia’s central bank may intervene in the currency market if the peso strengthens to more than 1,800 per dollar, Camilo Perez, head analyst at Banco de Bogota SA, Colombia’s second-biggest lender, said today. The Reuters-Jefferies CRB Index of commodities rose 0.2 percent.
“There’s still a latent concern in people’s minds about a possible currency intervention,” Perez said in a telephone interview. “A value of 1,800 has a psychological connation and people don’t want to pressure the exchange rate too much because of the possible intervention.”
The yield on the benchmark 11 percent bonds due 2020 rose one basis point, or 0.01 percentage point, to 7.13 percent, according to Colombia’s stock exchange. The bond’s price fell 0.099 centavo to 126.792 centavos per peso. (Nathan Gill / Bloomberg)