Blog BanRep

Remittance inflows are mainly flows of foreign currency sent periodically by emigrants to their families in the country of origin for various purposes such as contributing to household support, children's education, the purchase of housing or other investments that generate capital income for…

In 2021, the price of beef grew about 31% and has seen an additional growth of more than 4.0% as of February 2022. Read the full analysis in the new Banrep Blog post.

In 2021, the price of beef grew about 31% and, as of February 2022, has seen an additional growth of more than 4.0%. As can be seen from Graph 1, this increase coincided with similar increases in chicken and pork prices up to October 2021 in contrast to the relative stability seen since 2017.…

After a period of growing income inequality at the end of the 20th century, Colombia began the 21st century with a decline in the Gini coefficient that was particularly pronounced in the decade following 2010. This indicator went from 0.56 to 0.51 between 2010 and 2017, increasing slightly at…

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly altered the way merchants do business.  Preventive confinement, health restrictions and fear of contagion forced businesses to look for other ways of operating through home-based services, online commerce and the acceptance of different electronic payment…

Population aging poses a serious challenge to the Colombian pension system.

The Internationalization Mission convened by the National Government with the participation of renowned international experts, the technical secretariat of the National Planning Department (DNP in Spanish), and other entities…

In 2014, Decree 2616 introduced a change in regulation that lowered payroll taxes for low-income, part-time workers in Colombia. The reform made the mandatory contributions to social security proportional to the time worked when the monthly wage was lower than the minimum wage.

In each publication you will find easy-to-read articles related to the Colombian and global economy, and to the management of Banco de la República (the Central Bank of Colombia).

Inflation expectations correspond to what economic agents believe inflation will be in the future. This is a variable that is relevant to monetary policy and to the general performance of the economy since it influences how the prices for goods and services, wages, and the prices of financial…

Banco de la República's Financial Stability Report of the first semester of 2021 showed that during the first six months of 2020 (in a recessionary context derived from the global pandemic) total…

Scientific evidence has shown that extreme weather events, including excessive precipitation and droughts, are becoming longer and more severe due to the effects of climate change. If agricultural producers do not adjust to this new reality, produce shortages and higher food prices can be…

As part of its efforts to monitor the country's economic activity, Banco de la República conducts monthly surveys among businessmen and representatives of productive sectors in all regions of the country. The results of these qualitative surveys are aggregated into a balance, known as the…

The COVID-19 pandemic and the policy response to mitigate its effects resulted in a substantial deterioration in the finances of the Central National Government (CNG). In 2020, the CNG deficit stood at 7.8% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), more than three times higher than in 2019. This was…

Although the existence of wage gaps that favor men over women is well known and is explained by multiple factors, there is little discussion of what happens in the opposite case when the women in the households earn more money than the men. In particular, international studies suggest that…