BOGOTA, Jan 29 – Colombia’s top court on Thursday ordered President Gustavo Petro’s government to pause an emergency decree that had been intended to boost government finances, pending a final court decision.
Petro’s administration put the measures into effect in December after a tax reform bill aimed at raising 16.3 trillion pesos ($4.45 billion) failed to pass in Congress.
The economic emergency gave Petro’s government the power to make decisions by decree without authorization from Congress, a move that allowed for higher taxes in an effort to raise 11 trillion pesos ($3 billion) to finance part of the 2026 budget.
Colombia in June raised the 2025 fiscal deficit target to 7.1% of GDP, from an original 5.1%, prompting ratings agencies to downgrade the country’s sovereign rating.
Petro had previously said that a suspension of the economic emergency mesures in Colombia, Latin America’s fourth-largest economy, would make the country’s debt more expensive, and Interior Minister Armando Benedetti on Thursday criticized the court decision.
“It’s not right. By temporarily suspending the economic emergency, the mega-rich are being protected,” he said in a post on X.
($1 = 3,665.97 Colombian pesos)
(Reporting by Nelson Bocanegra, Editing by Natalia Siniawski)
