Finance Minister Mauricio Cardenas told conference media that the nation would expand less than its 4.5% target for whole-year 2013 – but hopefully the final number would not miss the mark by very much.
“I believe that surely GDP will end the year above 4%, we hope very close to 4.5%,” he said.
“For now we, the government, maintain a target of 4.5%.
The Andean nation’s government is being significantly more optimistic than market analysts, which are eyeing a likely end result of about 3.8%.
In June Cardenas said Colombia was scaling back on its 4.8% growth goal for 2013, setting a target of 4.5% after weak performances in the industrial sector paired with labour strikes and transport issues across the coal community – the nation’s top export product.
According to Reuters, Colombia's central bank has maintained a projection of about 4% for some time and said economic expansion for July to September would likely be between 3.8% and 5.4% year on year.
The country’s first-quarter growth was just 2.7% but the second quarter offset the disappointment with an improvement of 4.2% versus last year.
Earlier this week, the National Administrative Department of Statistics of Colombia ( DANE) confirmed that coal exports in the South American nation slipped by nearly a quarter during the month of October, potentially the result of the labour and transport issues that have plagued the country nearly all year.
DANE said October exports were 6.35 million tonnes, a drop of nearly 25% year on year.
The total also came in 22.7% lower than September – the year’s high – of 8.22Mt.
Year-to-date through the end of October, Colombian exports fell about 7% year on year to about 61Mt.
Last month, Mines and Energy Minister Amylkar Acosta announced 2013 coal production would miss the 94Mt goal it had set.
It projected approximately 85Mt, a drop from the 89Mt it produced last year.
Colombian coal shipments account for 12% of the country's total exports, according to national data.
In addition to being South America’s largest coal producer, the country is also the fourth-largest coal exporter in the world.
