The Colombian Minister of Finance opens the door to international financing

BOGOTA, Nov 17 (Reuters) – Colombian Finance Minister Jose Antonio Ocampo on Thursday opened the door to possible financing in international markets for the Andean country, if the recent trend of lower borrowing costs continues .

The South American country has already reached its debt level target in foreign and local markets this year.

Ocampo had previously shut down the ability to seek funding in international markets in recent months due to high debt costs caused by rising interest rates around the world, saying Colombia would instead focus on banks multilateral.

“If this trend (of lower international financing costs) continues, as we have seen in recent days, the possibility of going to the private international market will also be open for the government,” Ocampo said during a meeting. a forum in Bogotá.

At the same time, Ocampo attributed the movements in exchange rates – where the Colombian peso has depreciated sharply over the past three days – to high levels of speculation in the market.

“Last week we had the best performance in Latin America. We hope it will stabilize, but this week we are seeing a lot of exchange rate speculation again,” he said.

The Colombian peso depreciated 2.04% in early trading hours Thursday to 5,051 units to the dollar, from Wednesday’s close.

Reporting by Carlos Vargas and Nelson Bocanegra; Written by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Andrea Ricci

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