BOGOTA: Exuberant market reaction to a celebrity lawyer’s surprise victory in Colombia’s first-round election on Sunday is sowing expectations for an investment rebound in the resource-rich Andean country.
Abelardo de la Espriella, who calls himself “The Tiger”, is known for hawking his own brands of menswear and rum in the brash style of Donald Trump.
He’s vowing to kick-start the Colombian economy after years of waning investment under outgoing leftist president Gustavo Petro.
From oil to financial services and health care, Colombia may be primed for an economic jolt, analysts said, if the populist frontrunner can overcome Petro’s ideological heir Iván Cepeda in the June 21 runoff.
Petro, who is not eligible for re-election, is leaving behind a sluggish economy.
Foreign direct investment plummeted by a third to US$11.5bil in 2025 from US$17.2bil in 2022 when he took office.
Among the key sectors that took a beating was hydrocarbons, after Petro banned new drilling and quashed fracking plans in a bid to wean the country off fossil fuels.
Crude production stagnated and a natural gas deficit deepened. — Bloomberg
