Colombia's GDP grew 4% in 2012, could weaken peso

Colombia's finance minister Mauricio Cardenas said that the government should weaken the peso. “The question is whether the central bank can do a bit more, can intervene still more aggressively in the exchange market, and I believe it can,” he said in Bogota. Recently, Cesar Vallejo, one of the seven-member board of the central bank said that even though the institution had room to lower its benchmark interest rate, it must also be careful and consider other factors. Colombian policymakers have slashed the benchmark interest rate by 150 basis points since mid-2012 to its current 3.75%, the lowest in the region.