MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Colombia GDP overtakes Argentina’s, “a dream come true” says Finance minister
Colombia’s outgoing Finance minister Juan Carlos Echeverry said on Friday that the country’s GDP overtook Argentina’s thus making Colombia’s economy the second largest of South America and third of Latinamerica, behind Brazil and Mexico. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesWhat will la Cretina say now?
Sep 01st, 2012 - 06:35 am - Link - Report abuse 0Maybe Columbia spends less time mixing it with other countries and gets on with running a tight ship?
Sep 01st, 2012 - 07:06 am - Link - Report abuse 0First of all I'm new here. So hi to everybody.
Sep 01st, 2012 - 07:11 am - Link - Report abuse 0OMG, lol.
Poor man just lost his job and needs to save his hour.
This is not serious, he said “Colombia GDP overtakes Argentina’s” and at the end of the article... If we take the unofficial blue dollar rate which is he said 6, 37. ???
Argentina doesn’t measure the economy in that rate. Cos they export and import with the official dollar rate. Will be the same if want to buy goods at the supermarket in Rio with rate of the gold in Uzbekistan
The same if ill say Argentina economy is bigger than Mexican if we don’t count the cacao, sugar, coffee and cell- phones exportations.
By the way, who signs the articles???
Cheers!
(3) GastonBaires
Sep 01st, 2012 - 08:31 am - Link - Report abuse 0First of all; welcome to this neo-liberal des-information paradise.....
You are quite right about Mr. Echeverry's “Strange Ways” , taking a insignificant and local “Black Market” dollar cotization as a base for his international economical calculations.....
And such a person is appling to become the IMF Western Hemisphere Director for Latin America and the Caribbean !!!
Knowing a bit about the IMF, he wil most probably get the job......:-(
Having said that, I rejoice about the good times Colombia seems to be heading towards.
Hope this is the beginning of the end of more than 60 years of “Violencia” on that beautiful Country.
El Think
Chubut, Argentina
3 & 4
Sep 01st, 2012 - 08:57 am - Link - Report abuse 0Jealous of Colombia? Are you also now starting to realise the lies and bullshit you are being fed about your economy?
Chortle, chortle.
Hello Misters Think and Cestrain.
Sep 01st, 2012 - 09:21 am - Link - Report abuse 0I wish the best for Colombia they deserve to have a marvelous future. Better than anyone else.
But a fantasy is never a reality...
Business are always dealing in official rates,
Mr Etcheverry should use 6.70 or 7.35 unofficial rate to make his point clearer or 3.70 like some use at the airports in Argentina. But that one wouldn’t be that convenient.
C'est tout pour aujourd'hui
Cheers!
Whatever way you want to look at it, Colombia´s doing the right things, they are seeking free trade agreements, liberalizing their economy, attracting investments and conducting sound fiscal policies. The Colombian government is not chasing people around for changing their pesos for dollars, they got other more serious things to do.
Sep 01st, 2012 - 10:43 am - Link - Report abuse 0Good for Colombia.
@6 Hi!
Sep 01st, 2012 - 10:44 am - Link - Report abuse 0“But a fantasy is never a reality” Really, someone should pin that up on CFKC's mirror.
Mister Jose, we are all agree with you! You are absolutly right!
Sep 01st, 2012 - 10:47 am - Link - Report abuse 0The article is another thing.
I am a retired business man and I for one would not deal in the imaginary INDEC rate for the pesos when I knew that the Blue pesos was 7 or whatever.
Sep 01st, 2012 - 12:24 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Why would I and get a massive 52% hit against my USD?
I would never trade with Argentina in any case.
Delusional Argies in Chubut may 'Think' that is how the world works, but the rest of us know better.
Well done Cristina I knew I could rely on you to destroy Argentina and create a 4th rate country.
Sep 01st, 2012 - 01:34 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Who needs armed forces when we have you destroying Argentina for us.
I suppose the question is, how long before Colombia overtakes using the official exchange rate?
Sep 01st, 2012 - 03:01 pm - Link - Report abuse 0#3,4,6 Great posts, and I'll echo the questions “who signs the articles?”! Even if he wasn't lying, which it now seems clear he was, what he didn't take into account is that Colombia is still a hellhole for so many of its people. Hopefully that will change if the peace talks are successful, but Colombia has a long way to go to reach the standard of living of Cristina's Argentina...
Sep 01st, 2012 - 03:03 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I wonder if Argentina being the World's top protectionist country and
Sep 01st, 2012 - 04:29 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Argentina having more international trade disputes running than any other county and Argentina being regarded as a pariah state by international money lenders has anything to do with Columbia's ascendance and Argentina's demise?
Still well done Cristina and the Comedy club for making Argentina a fourth rate latin American country.
A country renown for producing Coke (Not the black pop in a dimpled bottle) overtakes Argentina. Wow, that must smart!!!!
Sep 01st, 2012 - 07:51 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Congratulations Colombia :)
Sep 02nd, 2012 - 01:47 am - Link - Report abuse 0--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sep 02nd, 2012 - 10:06 am - Link - Report abuse 0Just for your information, when you are working with a fraction where both the numerator and denominator depends on a common variable, you cannot change the variable in the denominator without changing the numerator. Since you come from a background in engineering... let say you have F(X)/X. If you change X in the denominator, F(.) would also change.
The people who did this back of the envelope calculation said... well... I will divide Argentine GDP in pesos by the black market exchange rate instead of the official one and therefore the GDP in dollars will be smaller WITHOUT taking into account that the Argentine GDP in Pesos (the numerator) also depends on the exchange rate you use as a large share of it is TRADABLE... so if you use the Black market exchange rate, you should also RE-ESTIMATE the GDP in pesos using that black market exchange rate.
So either, the Colombian newspaper published rubbish or we should be worry this guy will be the head of the IMF for Latin America.
Argentine GDP in nominal/PPP/or per capita terms is larger than Colombian as of today (even without INDEC number cooking).
Unofficial exchange rates tend to be a far more accurate measure of an economy than the ones propped up by a regime that clearly can't justify or defend the official exchange rates. Although it should be noted that the restricted currency market itself will drive up the unofficial exchange rates higher than what might be economically justified.
Sep 02nd, 2012 - 10:30 am - Link - Report abuse 0Argentina GDP in $AR 2.24 Trillions
Sep 02nd, 2012 - 11:13 am - Link - Report abuse 0Argentina’s GDP at constant prices from 1993 $1=1 USD= USD 499bn
GDP in Official exchange rate = USD 1= $4.63= 483bn
GDP in Dollar Blue (for tax evaders & illegal) = USD 1= $6.37= USD 350,33bn
GDP in PPP=USD 820bn
Colombia’s GDP in Official Exchange rate = $328.4 billion
GDP in PPP= $478bn
Just wonder if Mr. Echeverry cans properly use a calculator.
Anyway doesn’t matters if he plans to work for IMF none cares as IMF use guessing formula if they are wrong simple they formulate another guess based thin air.
If Argentina hadn't dug itself into its mess through Peron, the Dirty War, hyperinflation, Cristina Kirchner, etc. and had fulfilled its potential, then Argentina's economy would still be far bigger than Colombia's and very slightly behind Brazil's. In other words, one of Latin America's (and the world's) biggest economies!
Sep 02nd, 2012 - 12:32 pm - Link - Report abuse 0MAy be now,that many Colombians lives in Argentina can go back....
Sep 02nd, 2012 - 12:53 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Well if I was a Colombian in Argentina I WOULD GO BACK!! (and make my money)
Sep 02nd, 2012 - 01:56 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Being the World's top protectionist country and having more international trade disputes running than any other country in the World is obviously having an impact in the Argentine economy.
Sep 02nd, 2012 - 05:02 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Are Cristina's days numbered?
@17
Sep 02nd, 2012 - 06:48 pm - Link - Report abuse 0You are right, fromwhat I could see on other forums about Colombia estadistics, but still, I think a congratulation is in order because they have done a really good job in control of their currency, FT put it the second best performing currency of the developing markets, and their fiscal stability is sound, I am just happy for them :)
Not sure why the minister said this after aparently having a misunderstanding with Colombia´s president. dont see how would this help really.
Colombia cannot be counted out, it is a great country that suffered forty years of terrorism and criminality, just as other countries in the region have, but Colombia has come a long way and they will continue to grow for years to come for the same reasons many countries in the world have prospered and which are not some arcane secret: free trade, openness, liberalization and good fiscal policies, among other.
Sep 03rd, 2012 - 04:12 am - Link - Report abuse 0I think it is clear for many today that Colombia will soon become the third largest economy in Latin America, specially when Argentina`s government seems to have lost its path in nationalizations and protectionism.
@ this stage, if nothing changes in the horrific economic politics of Argentina, with 350 billion USD GDP they are not only being surpassed by equally populated countries like Colombia (Over 40 million in pop.), but also by smaller ones like Chile (with only 16 million in population, expected 301 Billion USD GDP in 2012)
Sep 03rd, 2012 - 09:58 am - Link - Report abuse 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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