Home Colombian News Money, Finance, Economics Colombian peso today reached position of equilibrium
Colombian peso today reached position of equilibrium PDF Print E-mail
Colombian News - Money, Finance, Economics
Friday, 30 October 2009 01:32
The Colombian peso reached a level of equilibrium today after the government and central bank took the right measures, Finance Minister Oscar Ivan Zuluaga said Wednesday.

"Today, our currency recovered a position of equilibrium after adjusting and correcting from this strong appreciation that happened in the previous weeks," Zuluaga told reporters Wednesday. "The dollar weakened because the right measures were taken to lift the pressure ... and to defeat the speculative phenomena," he added.

The Colombian currency Wednesday morning weakened to 2,003 pesos to the dollar as of 11:23 a.m. EDT. Earlier this month, Zuluaga said the fine level of the peso exchange rate was between COP2,000 and COP2,200 to the dollar.

Colombian authorities were worried about the peso's strong gains against the dollar in recent months, and how that hurts the country's exporters in a moment when the urban unemployment rate has risen above 13%.

Last Friday, the Central bank board said it would buy dollars outright on the currency market to stem the currency appreciation. The peso had gained 20% against the dollar between the end of 2008 and mid-October.

On Oct. 15, Zuluaga said the government and the state-controlled oil company Ecopetrol SA (ECOPETROL.BO) would refrain from changing the dollars they have into pesos for the remainder of the year.

Source: online.wsj.com
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