Weekly Report - 18 November 2003

COLOMBIA | Uribe defies IMF on debt buyback. President Alvaro Uribe has dismissed IMF objections to his declared intention of dipping into the country's reserves to buy back some of the public external debt. `The Colombians,' he said, `are very poor; they need social investment, so our reform must not be confined to taxes but also include relief to encourage employment and social investment - and the Banco de la República [central bank] must contribute to this through a good use of the reserves.'