President Gustavo Petro came out to firmly defend the economic emergency that his Government will decree, after the collapse of the financing law in the Congress of the Republic and in the midst of a growing political and legal controversy.
Through an extensive message published on the social network
According to the head of state, his administration has not resorted to debt to finance current public spending or investment, but rather to fulfill obligations inherited from previous governments. In his explanation, Petro maintained that the increase in internal debt is mainly due to the effect of the high interest rates set by the Bank of the Republic, while the external debt, he stated, has remained stable and even with a tendency to decrease compared to the size of the economy.
The president warned that the country’s real fiscal problem lies in the combination of a persistent primary deficit and a real interest rate higher than economic growth.
In this context, he assured that when interests exceed the growth rate, the debt becomes unsustainable, a scenario that, according to him, would already be occurring in Colombia.
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Petro went further and held the Bank of the Republic directly responsible for this situation, pointing out that the entity acted with political criteria and not as an independent monetary authority.
Likewise, he launched harsh criticism against Congress, especially against the economic commissions, which he accused of twice blocking the financing bill that, according to the Government, sought to reduce the deficit and guarantee the sustainability of the public debt.
In the midst of the controversy, the president insisted that the resources derived from the economic emergency must come from the sectors with the highest incomes in the country.
Meanwhile, different political and legal sectors question the legality of the measure and remember that the power to create new taxes falls exclusively on Congress, which anticipates an intense institutional debate in the coming days.
The press today continues in its desire to misinform the people about the government’s actions.
We do not go into debt to finance current or investment expenses of the current government.
We only go into debt to pay the debt of previous governments, which in the case of debt…
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) December 22, 2025
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