Colombia GDP Growth to Hit 4.5% This Year: Fedesarrollo Survey
Colombia’s gross domestic product (“PIB” in Spanish initials) is likely to grow by 4.5% during 2021 — up sharply from the 6.8% GDP net decline during the Covid-19 crisis of 2020, according to a just-released monthly survey of economists by Fedesarrollo, Colombia’s top economic think-tank.
According to the organization’s latest “Financial Opinion Survey” (FOS) for February 2021, Colombian economic growth for 2021 is now seen by most economists at 4.5%, with opinions ranging between 3.9% and 4.8%.
Other survey highlights:
Interest rates: Since the Colombian Central Bank (Banco de la Republica) set monetary policy interest rates at 1.75% during January 2021, “66% of the [economists] foresee an unchanged interest rate (1.75%) and 6.4% expect a reduction of 25-bps [basis points]” for the remainder of 2021.
Among those surveyed, 19% expect an increase of 25-bps, while 2.1% foresee a rate under 1%. Another 2.1% expect an increase to 2.25%, and the remaining 4.3% of those surveyed expect a 2.5% interest rate by the end of 2021, according to the survey.
Inflation: In January 2021, the annual inflation reached 1.6%, lower than the analysts forecast. In February, the analysts believe that inflation will be 1.5% , while inflation expectations for the end of 2021 are at 2.58%.
COP/U.S. Dollar Exchange Rate: In January, the exchange rate closed at COP$3,559.46 to the U.S. dollar, with a monthly appreciation of 3.69%.
According to the survey, “the exchange rate forecast by the end of [February] ranges between $3,450 and $3,550, with $3,510 as median response. The exchange rate forecast for the end of 2021 is COP$3,450, ranging between $3,400 and $3,530.
“Finally, the exchange rate forecast for next three months ranges between $3,400 and $3,550, with $3,475 as median response,” according to Fedesarrollo.
Colombia Treasury Bond Trading: In January, the traded volume of the Colombian treasury bonds reached COP$47.4 trillion (US$13 billion), up 183% from December 2020.
Now, 57% of analysts surveyed believe that T-Bill interest rates will range from 3.0% to 3.25% during the next three months, while 27% believe that the rate will be between 3.25% and 3.5% and the remaining 6.4% of those surveyed expect a rate over 3.5%.
“Regarding TES bonds maturing in 2028, none of the analysts considers that the rate will be under 4.5% during the next three months, while 29.8% consider it will be between 4.5% and 4.8%. The percentage of analysts who expect that the rate will be between 4.8% and 5.2% during the next three months was 66%. Finally, 4.3% expect a rate higher than 5.2%,” according to the survey.
Investment Determinants: “Economic growth continues ranking as the most important aspect considered for investing decisions, reaching 45.65%” of those surveyed.
“Fiscal policy and external factors placed second and third place, respectively. Concerns accounting for fiscal policy reached 28.26% (up from 20.9% in the previous month), while external factors reached 10.87% (down from 11.6% in the previous month),” according to the survey.
“Other factors” took fourth place, with the rate of Covid vaccinations being the main reason for “other factors.”
“Monetary policy, sociopolitical conditions and security conditions were the least in the investment determinants with 4.35%, 2.17% and 0.0% respectively,” according to the survey.
Investment preferences: Compared to January 2021, in Februrary 2021 “portfolio managers increased their preferences for private debt indexed to the CPI, foreign stock, private equity funds, international bonds, fixed rate private debt and cash,” according to the survey.
Colombia’s “Colcap” stock index: In February, 76.6% of the analysts (84.1% in January) expect a Colcap valuation [rise] during the next three months,while 19.1% of the analysts expect the index to devaluate and 4.3% to remain the same,” the survey found.
