Weekly Report - 27 October 2016 (WR-16-42)

After months of speculation Colombia’s finance minister, Mauricio Cárdenas, has presented the government’s proposed tax reform to congress. Cárdenas maintained that the sharp fall in the international price of oil made the tax reform essential. The government led by President Juan Manuel Santos had held back the tax reform for months because it feared that it might lead to protest votes against the peace accord with the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc). But having lost the referendum on the peace accord anyway on 2 October the government has calculated that there is no sense in delaying matters further, especially with international rating agencies threatening to downgrade Colombia’s credit rating.