LatinNews Daily - 01 May 2026

*Colombia’s central bank (Banrep) has held its benchmark interest rate at 11.25%. Banrep previously raised the interest rate by 100 basis points in two consecutive monetary policy meetings in February and March, after holding the rate at 9.25% since April 2025. In a statement explaining its latest decision, Banrep noted that annual inflation in March was 5.6%, up by 46 basis points from December and above the target rate of 3%. Banrep warned that a prolonged conflict in the Middle East could drive up international prices for energy, fertilisers, and other goods, while worsening the external financial conditions for Colombia. However, it stated that that factors such as “energy demand, manufacturing production, retail, and foreign trade in goods, indicate that economic growth in the first quarter will exceed that registered in the last quarter of 2025”. It also highlighted a “dynamic” labour market, with “historically low levels of unemployment”. The latest employment figures, published yesterday by the national statistics department (Dane), put the unemployment rate at 8.8% in March, down from 9.6% in the same month last year, while the underemployment rate was 6.2%, down from 7.3%. The informality rate also fell by 2.1 percentage points year-on-year to 55.6%.

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