Colombia Plans Debt Repayment

Colombia is planning to prepay around $580 million of its debt in the first half of this year to reduce its debt burden by canceling its highest-cost debt. The government will probably look to further lower the portion of its foreign-currency debt to reduce forex risk. Analysts believe multilateral credit and syndicated loans will also be targeted. Last year Colombia prepaid $2 billion of its debt including a $1.25 billion emergency credit granted by the Inter-American Development Bank in 2003 for five years. The loan represents 25% of its outstanding debt with the IDB.