Revista Ensayos sobre Política Económica (ESPE) - Colombian current account revenues: exports performance, progress and challenges

Document
Autor o Editor
Aarón Levi Garavito-Acosta
Enrique Montes-Uribe
Jorge Hernán Toro-Córdoba
Camila Agudelo-Rivera
Viviana A. Corredor-Alfonso
Álvaro Carmona-Duarte
María Mercedes Collazos-Gaitán
Camilo González-Sabogal
Manuel Darío Hernández-Bejarano
David Camilo López-Valenzuela
Adrián Martínez-Osorio
Norberto Rodríguez-Niño
Sandra Isabel Salamanca-Gil
Juan Camilo Santos-Pena
Héctor M. Zárate-Solano

En la revista Ensayos sobre Política Económica (ESPE) divulgamos los resultados y las propuestas de política que surgen de investigaciones académicas realizadas en el Banco de la República. Para nosotros es importante que ustedes puedan acceder a los resultados de investigaciones sobre la economía colombiana o temas de importancia para ella, con énfasis en evaluaciones empíricas y/o de relevancia para la conducción de la política económica.

Cuando nos lea, tenga siempre presente que el contenido de nuestros artículos, así como los análisis y conclusiones que de ellos se derivan, son exclusiva responsabilidad de sus autores. El material divulgado en nuestra revista ESPE no compromete ni representa la opinión del Banco de la República ni la de su Junta Directiva.

Fecha de publicación
Abstract
An analysis of the current account’s revenues of the balance of payments is undertaken. Those revenues comprise the exports of goods and services, the return from Colombian investments abroad, and current transfers that include workers remittances. It is found that Colombian foreign revenues are low when compared to other emerging economies, and are concentrated in exports of commodities, mainly mining and oil, while the share of export services is low. The geographical destiny of exports exhibits little diversification, where the US is the main trade partner. These characteristics increase the vulnerability of the Colombian economy to terms of trade and external demand shocks. The concentration of revenues on natural resources leads to a scarce complexity level of the Colombian exports as well as to a low insertion of the country in global value chains. Over the last few years, other sources of revenues such as factor income, remittances and other transfers have increased their share on the total revenue up to an average of 20 percent. The intensive use of non-tariff barriers, the complexity of logistical processes and the inadequate infrastructure have increased trading costs, preventing a better performance and a larger diversification of Colombian exports.