What Jumps Out: Live from Madrid

Gustavo Petro has vowed that tourism will at some point match commodities in terms of dollar revenues for Colombia, and whilst we aren’t there yet, the country is surely ahead of schedule. Cities such as Cartagena and Medellín saw YoY growth of over 20% in terms of overseas visitors, and there are expectations for more. This week at FITUR 2025 in Madrid, there was continued interest in Latin America and especially Colombia, where much of the country remains undiscovered.

Catatumbo remains an open wound as the ELN and FARC guerrillas fight it out over one of the most lucrative cocaine routes close to the Venezuelan border. Bogotá has now asked Caracas to help with the situation, but as yet there has been no formal reply.

Fedesarrollo released their first analyst survey of 2025 with an expected annual inflation reading of 4.2% (still outside the 2-4% Banco de la República – Colombia target) and an overnight rate of 7% (from the current 9.5%).GDP for 2024 has edged up to 1.8% with 2.6% for 2025.

The Peso, which closed Thursday at $4278 as the dollar, which rallied before the Trump inauguration, now appears to have priced in the ‘Golden Age’ of America.

The weather remains a quandary for IDEAM. At the same time as they were putting 46 municipalities on high alert for rain-related landslides, they were warning another 358 about the risk of drought-related forest fires.

That is all, have a wonderful day.

Regards.

Roops.

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Headline Image: President Gustavo Petro. Photo credit: Archive Presidency of Colombia.