Colombian assets sank Tuesday after President Gustavo Petro spooked investors with his first cabinet shakeup since taking office eight months ago.
(Bloomberg) — Colombian assets sank Tuesday after President Gustavo Petro spooked investors with his first cabinet shakeup since taking office eight months ago.
The peso plunged 2% to 4,857 per dollar, the biggest loser among emerging-market currencies. The nation’s dollar bonds underperformed peers, while the yield on peso-denominated notes maturing in 2034 rose 13 basis points to 13.2% and the cost of insuring against default spiked.
The sell off was spurred by Petro’s announcement Monday evening that three of his ministers had departed, stoking fears that the leftist president may be planning more changes as he pushes radical reforms. The highest profile minister to leave in the shake up, Education Minister Alejandro Gaviria, had been openly critical of the leftist president’s health care bill, which seeks to slash the role of private insurance companies.
“Gaviria has been one of the most vocal critics of the health care reform and considered a technocrat in the cabinet,” Citigroup Inc. strategists including Dirk Willer and Esteban Tamayo wrote in a note Tuesday. “His ousting can be read as a shift to the left for Petro.”
Petro has repeatedly stirred concerns on Wall Street since taking office in August. He sparked a rout earlier this month when he introduced the health reform, vowed to scale back the role of pension fund managers and signed a decree that will allow him to cut energy tariffs.
Dollar bonds handed investors losses of 3.2% for the month, compared to declines of 2.1% across an index of emerging-market government debt. The peso and local government bonds are the worst performers in the region in February, and five-year credit-default swaps soared, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Sports Minister Maria Isabel Urrutia and Culture Minister Patricia Ariza also left. Aurora Vergara was named education minister and Astrid Rodriguez will take over as sports minister. Ignacio Zorro will be the new culture minister.
The government likely managed to prevent a larger selloff Tuesday by issuing a reassurance that Finance Minister Jose Antonio Ocampo has no plans to leave, said Munir Jalil, Andean economist at BTG Pactual.
Over the medium term, Gaviria’s exit could block some congressional support which would make it harder for Petro to pass his “transformative reforms,” according to the Citigroup strategists.
(Updates with context throughout)
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