Colombia: no appetite for conventional fiscal tightening

Colombian President Petro’s recently published draft pension decree would, if implemented, reduce the government’s financing needs. But it won’t make much of a dent in the large budget deficit and, more worryingly, it underscores the Petro administration’s reluctance to improve Colombia’s shaky public finances through conventional fiscal tightening. This may continue if left-wing candidate Iván Cepeda (who’s currently ahead in the polls) wins May’s presidential election.