What Jumps Out: Petro at the UN

Whilst the world’s attention is rightly focused on London today as homage is paid to the extraordinary Queen Elizabeth II – there is still some news in other places.

President Petro is in NY to address the UN on climate change and sustainability. This very much links into his demands for reform locally, which include an upswing in solar power usage. Energy Minister Irene Vélez Torres has been appointed to that end. It should be noted that Colombia is a very ecofriendly energy producer already, hydroelectric power is especially prevalent, however sitting on the equator and with both the Caribbean and Pacific oceans lapping the shores, the sun and wind offer huge potential.

Sticking with energy, on Friday the government’s aforementioned Minister Velez announced it had come to an agreement with the local energy companies to lower the cost of electricity from November. I, along with millions of others will be taking note – in my case EPM had already announced they were willing to freeze prices.

In case you missed it, on Friday the DANE announced July import numbers that were much higher than expected, which led to another lumpy trade deficit.  The message is simple: the economy may be slowing but as of yet importers are keeping busy, even at a $4400 Peso and this has an impact on both inflation and interest rates.  Of course, the higher rates go, the tougher it will be to manage a soft landing.

This week’s macro data is pretty threadbare. Today (Monday) we have Economic activity for July which is expected to have fallen from 8.5% to 6.5%.

Then later in the week from Fedesarrollo the Retail and Industrial confidence data for August.

With that all that remains is to wish you a happy trading week and to all my compatriots a day of contemplation as we say a final goodbye to the only Queen we will ever know in our lifetimes.

See link to video summary below (LinkedIn):

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rupert-stebbings-927b6316a_what-jumps-out-petro-at-the-un-whilst-activity-6977592372406714368-nWHl?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

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That is about it for today – remember these are just themes that jump out at me – please refer to your local analyst, economist, salesperson or soothsayer for more details.

My regards to all,

Roops