The dollar It has begun to show upward trends since this week, and this time was no exception, as this Thursday the currency touched intraday highs of $5,015, breaking the ceiling again.
The currency closed at $4,989.62 on average, after an increase of $65.62 compared to the current Market Representative Rate (TRM), which was $4,924.
The minimum during the day reached $4,940, while the maximum exceeded the ceiling being $5,015.
At the national level, experts say that it is due to the conversations on pension reform and the inflation figures published by Dane, since the entity announced that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for December it was 1.26%, while the annual figure closed at 13.12%, much higher than expected. Said registration is mainly driven by food and non-alcoholic beverages, which grew 27.81%, followed by restaurants and hotels, with 18.54%.
“Since the pension reform began to be mentioned, the market is very nervous with the dollar. Today, to finish off the issue a bit, the inflation data also came out too negative, the market expected inflation to moderate a bit and it shot up“, says Sebastián Toro, a trader specializing in economics and former Income and Stock Market adviser.
All of this causes the market to be affected, “that generates more nervousness and makes the market expect greater rate hikes. People begin to get nervous about the economic situation and the outlook for the country and that generates upward pressure on the market. dollar”, completes Toro.
“With the inflation data that was released today, more pressure is put on the Banco de la República to increase interest rates and this should eventually have an impact on the currency, but initially the movement has to do mainly with external pressures“, says David Cubides, director of economic research at Alianza Valores.
Internationally, the hike came after Fed minutes showed officials warned against underestimating their willingness to keep interest rates high for some time.
In addition, experts say that this is due to a global trend, “there is pressure at the international level, the currency in the United States has been gaining ground at the beginning of the year and the pressure on treasury bonds in this country increases uncertainty“, complete Cubides.
In the same way, they relate these behaviors to oil, “at a global level, oil prices remain at the bottom and that is putting pressure on the currency,” adds Cubides.
Regarding the consequences, the experts believe that “the consequences of a high dollar are seen in prices more immediately, but they also affect the plans that some companies have to invest or make changes in the face of higher costs of goods,” he says. Ana Vera Nieto, Chief Economist at In On Capital.