LatinNews Daily - 06 July 2023

* The Consejo Colombiano de Seguridad (CCS), a Colombian business association, has estimated that the El Niño weather phenomenon could cause losses of over Col$3.7trn (US$896m) to the Colombian economy over the next 10 months. El Niño, which has now begun, the United Nations World Meteorological Organization announced yesterday, is expected to cause heatwaves and flooding across much of Latin America. At an event in Bogotá which was reported on by the local press, the CCS warned that weather conditions during El Niño are expected to cause a 0.6% reduction in working hours among formal employees, and a reduction of 4.5% in the hours worked by informal workers, who will face an estimated 6.4% reduction in their monthly wages. This, the CCS calculated, would result in a total of around Col$2.88trn in lost revenue for the informal sector, and of Col$838bn for the formal sector.