For Colombia Peso Bulls, Relief Is Proving Hard to Find

For week after week late last year, oil sank and the Colombian peso followed. Makes sense. Crude is the country’s biggest export, and no other currency in Latin America is as tied to oil-market swings as the peso.

But then crude prices stabilized last month, and yet the peso kept tumbling. It dropped 9.3 percent in the past month alone -- more than all but two currencies in the world -- and fell Monday past 2,600 per dollar for the first time since 2009. While the break in the oil selloff has been enough to provide support to currencies including the Canadian and Australian dollars, more of a rebound is needed to lift the peso, analysts say. That’s because the oil industry has been the dominant force attracting foreign investment to Colombia, accounting for 35 percent of the $64 billion that’s come into the country since 2010.