Finance Minister Juan Carlos Echeverry said that the extended rainy season has not affected Colombia’s economic growth goals or inflation targets, newspaper El Espectador reported Wednesday.
Despite the fact that millions of people were affected by the rainy season caused by the La Niña phenomenon, which has flooded rivers, towns and villages and farmland, Echeverry said that Colombia is still on track to attain the government’s target GDP growth of 4% to 6% and an inflation target of between 2% and 4%.
The minister said that the most recent data from the consumer price index placed annual inflation at 2.84%, which, according to Echeverrry, “is quite a comfortable figure in that it is below the mid-point of the target range, which is 3%.”
A meeting of the central bank’s board of directors, to decide whether or not to change the interest rate, is scheduled for late May. At a Tuesday night meeting with President Juan Manuel Santos, businessmen requested that the interest rate remain at 3.75%.