MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Colombia in recession for the first time since 1999

Last year GDP expanded 3.5% in July/September, but positive projections for 2020 were buried with the detection of the first case of covid-19 in March

Colombia entered in recession for the first time since 1999 due to the paralysis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, after registering for the second consecutive quarter a contraction in Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Latin America’s fourth economy contracted 9% in the third quarter compared to the same period in 2019, although the crash was less than -15.8% recorded between April and June, the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) said Tuesday in a virtual presentation to the media.

Last year GDP expanded 3.5% between July and September, but positive projections for 2020 were buried with the detection of the first case of covid-19 in March and the confinement measures that followed it to prevent the spread of the virus.

The sectors of trade, transport accommodation and food services (-20.1%), construction (-26.2%) and mining and quarrying (-19.1%) marked the decline in the economy this quarter.

The last time Colombia experienced a recession was in 1999 with a negative growth of 4.5%, due to excessive public and private debt and a mortgage crisis.

With 50 million inhabitants, Colombia is the fourth country in the region with the highest number of deaths from coronavirus since the onset of the pandemic, with more than 34,200, and the third in contagion, with more than 1.2 million case.