LatinNews Daily - 28 November 2024

*Colombia’s finance ministry has announced that it has cut the 2024 budget by Col$28.4trn (US$6.4bn), equivalent to 5.6% of the total budget. A finance ministry statement said that the decision to reduce this year’s budget had been made following "analysis of the current economic situation" and “is a sign of the national government’s commitment to fiscal discipline”. Of the Col$28.4trn in cuts, Col$18.2trn will be to government operating costs, with the largest of these budget cuts targeted at the ministries of finance (Col$11.8trn), labour (Col$3.9trn), defence (Col$606bn), the judicial branch (Col$452bn), and the attorney general’s office (Col$347bn). Cuts to public investment will total Col$10.1trn and will fall most heavily on the ministries of social inclusion (Col$1.8trn), finance (Col$1.7trn), transport (Col$1.4trn), agriculture (Col$1.2trn), and housing (Col$647bn). The statement adds that the finance ministry’s fiscal advisory council (Confis) had recommended a greater total budget reduction of up to Col$33trn, but that President Gustavo Petro’s government had decided to keep additional funds aside to fund the response to the rainy season and to preserve investments that support childhood nutrition programmes, basic rights of children, free higher education, and access to safe drinking water.