Colombia is Latin America's fourth biggest economy so far, but seems like not to be long time in there. Colombia's goal is to trade places with Argentina, and move up to third place. So far,
the plan looks promising. Foreign direct investment in Colombia
in the first third of this year was $6 billion, a 25% increase,
compared to the same period of 2011. Investment will likely get a
further impetus as a result of the entry into force last month of a free
trade agreement with the United States. In addition, Colombia is
planning to negotiate trade deals with Costa Rica, Dominican Republic
and Venezuela.
Close to 80% of the investments are in the resource sector, especially
mining and oil. But the government is pushing diversification.
Colombia's minister of info-communication was in the United States last
week to seek investors, for a plan to expand fiber-optics and 4G
networks nationwide, including 90% coverage by 2014.
In terms of output, economic growth for 2012 is expected to be a solid
5.5%, following a robust fourth quarter of last year, with an increase
in GDP of 7.7%.
With annual national production valued at $2.1 trillion, Brazil remains
the economic powerhouse of Latin America, followed by Mexico at $1
trillion. But with a GDP of $290 billion, Colombia trails Argentina by
only around $80 billion. Venezuela recently has had the same GDP as
Colombia. However, the value of Venezuelan output tends to be unstable,
depending on oil prices.
