BOGOTA, May 6 (Reuters) – Colombia’s independent fiscal watchdog will suspend monitoring of public finances and stop issuing legally mandated opinions in November after the government reduced its operating budget, the committee’s president warned on Wednesday.
The move could negatively impact investor confidence in public debt markets and credit rating agencies’ assessments as Colombia faces fiscal deterioration that has increased its debt burden, analysts said.
• The finance ministry allocated the Autonomous Committee of Colombia’s Fiscal Rule (CARF) funding for 10 of 12 months this year, an 8% real budget cut while the ministry’s own operating budget grew 8%.
• CARF would first stop monitoring public finances and eventually stop issuing mandatory legal opinions, its President Juan Carlos Ramirez told Reuters.
• The ministry assigned CARF a budget of 2.23 billion pesos (about $600,000) for this year.
• Operating at minimum staffing levels will prevent functioning in November and December, Ramirez said.
• The finance ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the budget cut.
• President Gustavo Petro, whose term ends in August, has previously criticized CARF’s recommendations about the country’s deteriorating finances.
• In late April, CARF warned the next government must cut spending by four percentage points of GDP, equivalent to 74.1 trillion pesos ($19.9 billion), to avoid default.
• Last year, the government suspended the fiscal rule for three years to be able to increase the deficit despite CARF’s recommendation against doing so.
(Reporting by Nelson Bocanegra)
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