Central Banker Says Colombia Slowdown Needed to Fix Trade Gap

A Colombian central banker welcomed the recent slowdown in economic growth, saying it would narrow the current account gap and reduce vulnerability to shocks as the U.S. starts to raise interest rates.

Growth will slow to between 3 percent and 3.5 percent in 2015, from 4.6 percent the year before, after prices fell for the nation’s oil and mining exports, bank co-director Ana Fernanda Maiguashca said. Colombia’s current account deficit is “not comfortable” after widening to the most in more than a decade last year, she said.