BOJ holds rates steady: On 22–23 January, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) decided by an eight-to-one vote to keep its...
Policy Interest Rate in Colombia
The Central Bank's policy rates over the last decade saw alternating hiking and lowering cycles. Post-financial crisis, rates trended upward to tackle climbing inflation. However, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, rates were quickly cut to support the economy and the peso. In the face of rising inflation, the Bank initiated a series of rate hikes in 2022. By 2024, the Bank eased its stance, but rates remained elevated by pre-pandemic standards.
The policy interest rate ended 2024 at 9.50%, compared to the end-2023 value of 13.00% and the figure a decade earlier of 4.50%. It averaged 6.39% over the last decade. For more interest rate information, visit our dedicated page.
Colombia Interest Rate Chart
Note: This chart displays Policy Interest Rate (%) for Colombia from 2014 to 2025.
Source: Macrobond.
Colombia Interest Rate Data
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Policy Interest Rate (%, eop) | 1.75 | 3.00 | 12.00 | 13.00 | 9.50 |
| 90-day DTF (%, eop) | 1.89 | 3.21 | 13.70 | 12.69 | 9.25 |
| 10-Year Bond Yield (%, eop) | 5.76 | 8.46 | 13.23 | 9.94 | 12.43 |
Central Bank leaves rates unchanged in December
The Bank stands pat: At its meeting on 19 December, the Central Bank of Colombia (Banrep) decided to keep the monetary policy interest rate unchanged at 9.25%, matching market expectations. The board of directors was split: Four voted in favor of the hold, two supported a 50 basis point reduction and one backed a 25 basis point decrease.
Lower inflation and robust GDP growth drive decision: On one hand, a rate hike wasn’t warranted given lower inflation in November compared to October. That said, as inflation remained above the Central Bank’s 2.0–4.0% target, GDP growth beat expectations recently and expectations of future inflation increased, the Bank felt unable to cut. The Bank will reconvene on 30 January.
Some panelists hike their forecasts: The Central Bank provided no explicit forward guidance on interest rates, stating that future rate decisions will be contingent on the evolution of inflation. Speaking at a subsequent press conference, Governor Villar warned that if inflation expectations continued to rise, the Bank would be forced back into tightening mode. That risk has likely increased, as a larger-than-anticipated minimum wage increase for 2026 recently prompted several panelists to mark up their inflation outlook and pencil in interest rate hikes for this year. However, our current Consensus is for interest rates to end 2026 close to their end-2025 level.
Panelist insight: Commenting on the outlook, Santiago Tellez, analyst at Goldman Sachs, stated: “We no longer see Banrep remaining on hold at upcoming meetings, given the sheer magnitude of the wage surprise, our standing view that the minimum wage is the main upside risk to core disinflation […]. Instead, we now anticipate a hiking cycle to prevent end-2026 inflation expectations from rising further, anchor risk-premium and the FX, and further tighten the policy stance to counter heightened fiscal concerns and a potential short-term impulse to aggregate demand.”
Consensus Forecasts and Projections for the next ten years
How should you choose a forecaster if some are too optimistic while others are too pessimistic? FocusEconomics collects Colombian interest rate projections for the next ten years from a panel of 40 analysts at the leading national, regional and global forecast institutions. These projections are then validated by our in-house team of economists and data analysts and averaged to provide one Consensus Forecast you can rely on for each indicator. By averaging all forecasts, upside and downside forecasting errors tend to cancel each other out, leading to the most reliable interest rate forecast available for Colombian interest rate.
Download one of our sample reports to visualize what a Consensus Forecast is and see our Colombian interest rate projections.
Want to get access to the full dataset of Colombian interest rate forecasts? Send an email to info@focus-economics.com.
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