The president Gustavo Petro joked about the rise in price of the dollar against the pesoa value that this week has broken several historical records that bring the price of the currency against the local currency closer to $5.000.
The president’s comment was made during his speech at the first Ibero-American forum entitled “Challenges of Labor Formalization”, in a speech that focused on his proposal on pensions and changes in the market from work.
Petro was referring to older adults who do not have access to a pension and to the subsidies that the State has provided for this population, when he began to do accounts on how much the subsidy provided by the Government is equivalent to.
“Most of our old men and women do not have any pension. Over there there is a program that reaches 20% that they call a pension bonus. It’s $80,000, that is, in today’s dollars… Divide by $5,000”assured.
The president laughed after affirming that the dollar in Colombia it is practically at $5,000 and made those attending the event do the math to conclude that this subsidy is equivalent to just $16.
In that speech, the president reiterated his intention to change the pension system. “It is the State that pays the pensions. If the contributors delivered part of the contribution to the public fund if it releases a resource in the State that stops being spent and we could spend it on the old population that today does not have a pension and receives 16 dollars, ”he concluded.