Colombia’s new director of Public Credit to seek rebuilding market confidence
Bogota (Reuters) - Colombia’s new Public Credit director, Javier Cuellar, will seek to renew market confidence, the executive said Monday, amid growing uncertainty stemming from the country’s cloudy fiscal outlook and the recent replacement of its finance minister.
Cuellar, who served as president of the National Guarantee Fund, replaced Jose Roberto Acosta as the head of Public Credit earlier this month.
The incoming executive called a meeting to be held Tuesday with market-making agents, who participate in domestic public debt auctions, the main source of financing for public spending after tax collection.
"I will make decisions very quickly to rebuild market confidence," Cuellar wrote in a message to a market participant obtained by Reuters.
"In my new role, my priority will be strengthening investment appetite, championing fiscal responsibility and technical decisions that promote a path to public debt sustainability," he added.
During his inauguration last week, Colombia’s incoming Finance Minister, German Avila, said that the country will have to make adjustments to public spending and debt in order to face the government’s fiscal difficulties.
The minister’s appointment, who replaced Diego Guevara—who held his post for less than three months—increased uncertainty in the markets about the future of the South American country’s deteriorating public finances.
