The Colombian economy accelerated and grew by 8.1% in February, according to Dane

According to the National Administrative Department of Statistics (Dane), the Colombian economy grew by 8.1% in February and increased the rate compared to January 2022.

By February 2022, according to Dane, primary activities grew by 0.9 per cent and contributed 0.1 percentage points to the annual change of ISE, secondary activities increased by 10.1 per cent and contribute 1.6 percentage points to the annual variation of ISE and tertiary activities rose by 8.9 per cent and contribute to 6.4 percentage points to the annual change of the ISE.

The report revealed that the activities that most drove the economy were trade, transport, accommodation and services; it was followed by arts, entertainment and public administration, health, defense and education.

These activities had been affected in 2020 and part of 2021 by the restrictions generated by the covid-19 pandemic, so reducing mobility restrictions in the country also boosted the economy.

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Despite the good numbers, among the activities that grew the least were agriculture, real estate activities and the mining and oil sector.

For his part, the director of the entity, Juan Daniel Oviedo, said that if we want to observe the added value of the Colombian economy in January and February, this would be 7.9%.

Oviedo also highlighted that compared to countries such as Costa Rica, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Peru or Paraguay, Colombia has shown better results in economic dynamism and reactivation.

The Economic Monitoring Indicator (ISE), a study released today by Dane, shows how the different sectors fared each month, and in May the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data will be released, which will tell how much the economy grew in the first quarter (January-March)

Compared to January, Latin America's fourth economy grew by 1.6 per cent in February.

“We cannot say that economic growth is fundamentally stimulating, or is generating an inflationary process via demand,” Oviedo explained.

In the first quarter of the year, inflation in Colombia stood at 4.36%, compared to 1.56% in the same period last year, while in the accumulated over the last 12 months, until March, consumer prices reached 8.53%, compared to 1.51% in the same period in 2021, far from the Central Bank's target of 3%.

The acceleration in inflation led the Central Bank to increase its main interest rate by 325 basis points to the current 5% since September last year, when the current cycle of hikes began to contain the increase in prices.

Colombia's GDP achieved record growth of 10.6% during 2021, explained by higher domestic consumption and a statistical effect following the historic 7% contraction caused by the crisis resulting from the covid-19 pandemic. For this year, the national Government set an economic growth target of 5 per cent.

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