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Followers of monetary policy and inflation are familiar with the decisions made by the Board of Directors of Banco de la República regarding the monetary policy interest rate (MPR), which experiences periods of increase and decrease, always aiming to keep inflation around its 3.0% target. This rate serves as a benchmark to determine the cost of funding that Banco de la República provides to the banking system to meet its liquidity needs.

Recently, the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE in Spanish) published updated vital statistics data for the country, exhibiting a 14.6% decrease in births during the first four months of 2024 compared to the same months in 2023. This decline is more pronounced than the 11% decrease observed throughout 2023 vis-à-vis 2022, or the 7.0% decline seen in 2022 vis-à-vis 2021.

Quienes siguen los temas de política monetaria e inflación están acostumbrados a escuchar las decisiones de la Junta Directiva del Banco de la República sobre la tasa de interés de política monetaria (TPM), la cual tiene períodos de subida y otros de bajada, siempre con el objetivo de mantener la inflación alrededor de su meta de 3,0 %. Esta tasa es la que se utiliza como referencia para determinar el costo del fondeo que el Banco de la República provee al sistema bancario para atender sus necesidades de liquidez.

Recientemente, el DANE publicó los datos actualizados de estadísticas vitales del país que indican una reducción de 14,6 % en los nacimientos durante los primeros cuatro meses de 2024 frente a los mismos meses de 2023. Esta caída es más pronunciada que la caída de 11 % que se había observado en todo 2023 frente a 2022, o la caída de 7 % que se observó en 2022 frente a 2021.

An understudied aspect of healthcare systems is the impact of the quality of the medical staff on the health performance of system users. A research paper in which Christian Posso (senior economist at Banco de la República) participated, and whose results were recently published in the series Working Papers on Economics, particularly studies the impact of physicians' skills on people's health in Colombia.

In a recently published blog on Banco de la República’s profits, it was shown that in 2023 these mainly came from the yield of foreign reserves, which in the last 10 years reached an average share of 84% of the Bank’s assets.

Un aspecto poco estudiado de los sistemas de salud es el impacto de la calidad del personal médico sobre el desempeño de salud de los usuarios del sistema. Un trabajo de investigación en el que participa Christian Posso, investigador del Banco de la República, y cuyos resultados se publicaron recientemente en la serie Borradores de Economía, estudia precisamente el impacto de las habilidades de los médicos en la salud de las personas en Colombia.

En un blog publicado recientemente sobre las utilidades del Banco de la República, se mostró que en 2023 estas provinieron principalmente del rendimiento de las reservas internacionales, las cuales en los últimos 10 años alcanzaron una participación promedio del 84 % dentro de los activos del Banco.

A health system reform is currently being discussed which proposes that payment to Healthcare Service Providers (IPS in Spanish) be made directly by a public entity, the ​​Administrator of Resources of the General System of Social Security in Health (ADRES in Spanish), based on fee schedules per service. Apart from other implications of the proposal, it is essential to note that the payment scheme to be adopted affects the decisions of healthcare service providers regarding the treatments for their users.

Following the enactment of the 1991 Constitution, which increased the fiscal autonomy of subnational governments, there was a growing deterioration of territorial finances, which, in turn, threatened to jeopardize the fiscal position of the Central Government. In response, fiscal rules for subnational governments were introduced in 1997.