Colombia’s economy blew away forecasts as it grew at the fastest pace in more than a century last year, driven by a rebound in consumer demand after pandemic curbs were eased, and soaring prices for the nation’s oil, coal and coffee, Bloomberg News reported. Gross domestic product expanded 10.6% in 2021, the nation’s statistics agency said Tuesday. That’s the fastest pace since at least 1906, according to data compiled by the central bank. GDP grew 10.8% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, surprising all 15 economists surveyed by Bloomberg whose median forecast was for growth of 9.3%.
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Colombia launched a series of measures seeking to curb the fastest inflation in five years, largely from increases in food prices, the nation’s finance minister said, Bloomberg News reported. Minister Jose Manuel Restrepo announced a package of measures after inflation accelerated in January, more than doubling its 3% target. Restrepo spoke on Sunday alongside the agriculture and transport ministers, among other high-level officials, after a meeting with President Ivan Duque, according to a video from the administration.
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Avianca, one of Latin America’s largest airlines, is emerging from bankruptcy protection after winning court approval for its reorganization plan a year and a half after the Covid-19 pandemic decimated the region’s air carriers, Bloomberg News reported. Avianca, which is headquartered in Bogota, said it is exiting the restructuring process after raising fresh investments of $1.7 billion. It also comes out of bankruptcy with “significantly” reduced debt and more than $1 billion of liquidity, the company said in a regulatory filing.
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The Southern District of New York has approved Colombian airliner Avianca's reorganization plan, Avianca said on Tuesday, which will allow the company to complete its chapter 11 bankruptcy process before the end of the year, Reuters reported. Avianca, along with rival Chile's LATAM Airlines, were the two largest carriers in the region before the coronavirus pandemic, but both were sent into bankruptcy restructuring when the virus upended air travel, amid especially strict restrictions in Latin America.
Airline Avianca Holdings will move its domicile to the United Kingdom and its stock will no longer be traded on the Colombian stock exchange, the company said on Wednesday, a day after a U.S. court's approval of the company's restructuring plan, Reuters reported. Colombia's flag carrier had filed for chapter 11 protection at a U.S. court in New York in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic. It now expects to exit the measure by the end 2021, after receiving around $2 billion in new financing under a debt-for-equity deal.
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Avianca Holdings SA asked a judge for permission to exit bankruptcy under a plan that the airline says will eliminate about $3 billion in debt and preserve over 10,000 jobs, Bloomberg News reported. Latin America’s second-largest airline before the pandemic presented its restructuring plan at a hearing in New York Tuesday. If approved, the 102-year-old company is eyeing an exit from bankruptcy this year. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn appeared to side with the company when a handful of objectors claimed the proposal wrongly favored some creditors over others.
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Colombia’s process of normalizing monetary policy after a period of record low interest rates may take about 12 months, according to the governor of the central bank, Bloomberg News reported. “In principle what we know is that we’ll go through a process that may take a year or so, taking the interest rate to a more normal level,” Villar said. Last month, Villar and his colleagues raised the key interest rate for the first time in five years, lifting it a quarter percentage point to 2% as the economy rebounds from last year’s slump.
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Distressed fertilizer-producer Monómeros Colombo-Venezolanos, the Colombian subsidiary of Venezuelan state-owned Pequiven, has filed for bankruptcy protection on the heels of a regulatory intervention, Argus Media reported. Colombian corporate regulator SuperSociedades is expected to accept the company into a reorganization process that would lead to an "expedited rescue plan." The strategic company supplies about 40pc of the Colombian market.
Avianca Holdings SA won court approval to send its reorganization plan to creditors for a vote, bringing the Colombian air carrier one step closer to exiting bankruptcy under new ownership, Bloomberg News reported. Lenders and noteholders who agreed to refinance their debt at the beginning of Avianca’s bankruptcy case last year will get 72% of the airline’s equity in exchange for canceling about $934.7 million, according to court papers. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn said he would approve a disclosure statement that will be sent to creditors in the U.S.
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Colombia’s rapid recovery and growing inflationary pressure mean the central bank will need to pare back the amount of stimulus it’s providing the economy, bank Governor Leonardo Villar said, Bloomberg News reported. “We saw the need to begin reducing the magnitude of stimulus,” Villar said in a presentation Thursday, referring to the central bank board’s discussion in its last policy meeting in July. “That doesn’t mean eliminating stimulus altogether.” The bank will begin to lift interest rates “gradually”, he said, without specifying when it will start.
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