Colombia entered an economic recession for the first time in two decades

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

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

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

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

The last time Colombia experienced a recession was in 1999 with negative growth of 4.5%, due to excessive indebtedness from both the public and private sectors 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 beginning of the pandemic, with more than 34,200, and the third in infections, with more than 1.2 million cases.