Colombia’s consumer prices last
month dipped 0.04 percent, the lowest figure for July since
2003, after rising 0.48 percent in the same month a year
earlier, the government said on Wednesday.
A Reuters poll this week found most analysts expected
inflation in July to slow to 0.06 percent. Consumer prices are
being pushed down by the economy hit by slow demand for
Colombian goods and oil and by weak domestic demand.
The central bank now expects inflation to finish 2009 under
4 percent — below the bank’s target range of 4.5 percent to
5.5 percent for the year.
Inflation for the year so far was 2.18 percent compared
with 6.53 percent in the same period a year earlier while
annual 12-month inflation through July this year was 3.28
percent, the DANE statistics agency said in a statement.
Colombia’s economy shrank 0.6 percent in the first quarter
after contracting 1 percent in the last three months of 2008.
The government expects the economy to start to grow again in
the second half of the year and expand by 2.5 percent in 2010. (Reuters)
