Colombia Lifts GDP Forecast

The government of Colombia has revised its GDP growth forecast to 3.0% from 2.5%, still less than the pace Wall Street is predicting. Goldman Sachs still thinks this is a conservative forecast, as it predicts the economy will actually grow by 4.0% in 2010. Morgan Stanley is a bit more bullish, expecting GDP to grow 4.1% in 2010. Colombia’s government also forecasts a 3.6% deficit for the non-financial public sector and a 4.4% fiscal deficit for the central government. Both deficits are 10bp below the targets announced in January. Goldman says it does not rule out that the government ends up over-performing the fiscal deficit target, delivering a lower deficit than expected.