Colombia’s Petro picks market-friendly Ocampo as finance minister

Colombian President-elect Gustavo Petro speaks in the course of the presentation of the ultimate report of the Real truth Commission at the Jorge Eliecer Gaitan theater in Bogota, Colombia June 28, 2022. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez

BOGOTA, June 30 (Reuters) – Colombia’s leftist President-elect Gustavo Petro on Thursday named Jose Antonio Ocampo as his finance minister, a market place-pleasant alternative who will have the problem of preserving the solid functionality of Latin America’s fourth-biggest economy and passing ambitious fiscal reforms in Congress.

Ocampo, 69, who has a Phd in economics from Yale University, is one particular of Colombia’s most celebrated economists who beforehand served as agriculture minister, minister of finance and director of the countrywide setting up division. He has also held positions in the United Nations.

He has recently labored as a professor at Columbia University in the United States.

“This will enjoy perfectly in the sector, he is a complex guy, an economist that absolutely everyone recognizes and has normally been progressive, that would seem superior to me,” claimed Sergio Olarte, Scotiabank’s chief economist for Colombia.

Throughout the election marketing campaign Petro pledged an bold tax reform worth some 50 trillion pesos ($12.1 billion) to finance social initiatives and set community finances in get.

He also proposed a pension reform to develop protection to larger quantities of aged inadequate people today, which has induced uncertainty among the business and investing communities.

“Jose Antonio Ocampo will be our finance minister (to) establish a successful financial state and an overall economy for lifestyle,” Petro claimed in a information on Twitter together with a photo of the two adult males standing aspect by facet.

Colombia’s forex fell .75% to 4,148 pesos to the dollar in early buying and selling, in line with worldwide tendencies due to developing risk aversion amid fears of a economic downturn in the United States.

In contrast, the MSCI COLCAP index (.COLCAP) rose 1.68% to 1,369.45 details.

The election of Petro, a former M-19 guerrilla, marks a radical transform for a country even now scarred by decades of conflict. Nearly 50 % of Colombia’s approximately 50 million people today stay in poverty and quite a few voters are annoyed with the proper-leaning political institution.

The President-elect has promised to deal with deep inequality with pension redistributions, totally free college instruction and other social courses.

Final 7 days Petro named prolonged-time politician and peace envoy Alvaro Leyva as his minister of foreign affairs. study additional

Reporting by Nelson Bocanegra, Oliver Griffin and Luis Jaime Acosta enhancing by Michael Perry and Grant McCool

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