Colombian Finance Minister Bonilla endorsed a more aggressive reduction of the central bank’s benchmark interest rate, targeting 8% by year-end from 12.75%. This call for larger cuts, possibly in 50 to 75 bps increments, comes in light of disappointing economic growth data for last year, marking the weakest performance since 1999, aside from the pandemic period. Despite inflation remaining at 8.4%, far from the 3% target, analysts predict an acceleration of rate cuts starting in March, with an anticipated year-end benchmark rate of 8.25%.