We have seen a slight rebound over recent sessions as the peso recovers from the perfect storm of a lost investment grade, a wobbly oil price and forthcoming elections. Another major factor for the peso will be exports and there was good news on that front for July.
Another aspect is the normalization tax complementary to income tax. This 17% tax would be reincorporated with the purpose of normalizing omitted assets or nonexistent liabilities, and would be in force for the year 2022. During 2021 an advance payment of 50% must be made.
On a more optimistic note, the MSCI COLCAP finally appears to be gaining a foothold in 2021, we are no longer bottom of the pile and for foreigners in particular, there are bargains to be had.
Here in Colombia the market has been crying out for new blood, we have seen multiple names such as Tablemac delist, others including Éxito who are no longer part of the MSCI COLCAP and recently Avianca which has been put on the naughty step due to Chapter 11.
Over the last few years, Colombia has recognized that its natural and cultural wealth can be enjoyed by travelers while also being protected and preserved through sustainability guidelines.
All three agencies said publicly many months ago that they were looking for the tax reform to right the fiscal ship which has been listing badly ever since COVID struck - to put it bluntly, the authorities have failed to deliver - and it is on them.
Monday saw the latest surveys released by Fedesarrollo - the Financial Opinion Survey (FOS) & Stock Market Confidence Indices (SMCI) - for the month of June. The overall confidence number stands at 96.97% which is up 5.1% from May - breaking that down we see other improvements.
What can observers take from events in Peru? And what takeaways are relevant for Colombia’s upcoming 2022 elections, and for economic and civil liberty more broadly in the Americas? Daniel Raisbeck has some prescient observations.