President Abelardo De La Espriella vowed to reduce Colombia’s yawning budget deficit and make South America’s fourth-largest economy more attractive to investors, in his inaugural address on Friday.
The country’s far-right leader pledged to freeze public spending, which ballooned under his leftist predecessor, Gustavo Petro, while at the same time introducing structural tax changes, in part to aid SMEs—and the wealthy.
A longstanding tax on the richest Colombians, which was expanded under Petro, will be eliminated, said De La Espriella, a successful lawyer who reportedly owns a house in Miami valued at about $5 million.
“We must stop penalizing those who invest and generate wealth in our country,” he said.
De La Espriella also vowed to restart oil and gas exploration at state-run Ecopetrol and to pursue “the development of responsible and sustainable fracking.”
He was speaking after taking his presidential oath at a military base in Cali. Fighting crime and clamping down on armed rebel groups were also key themes in his speech, as they were during his campaign.
“My economic team has precise instructions to restore Colombia’s standing within the international community,” the president said. “We will once again be recognized as a serious, reliable, and secure nation for investment.”
PUBLIC CREDIT DIRECTOR
Under Petro, Colombia posted its biggest budget gap this century and was castigated by rating agencies. The sovereign was downgraded by Fitch to BB late last year, and S&P cut its rating to BB- in April.
De La Espriella’s economic team is being led by Finance Minister Miguel Gómez, an economist and former congressman, while César Arias was named director of public credit last week.
Arias previously served as head of public credit under Petro’s predecessor, Iván Duque, from 2018 until 2022.