Consumer prices rise 0.29% vs month earlier

Colombian consumer prices rose 0.29 percent in september, the national statistics agency said. 

The result was higher than the 0.16 percent median forecast in a survey of 32 analysts.

Annual inflation was 3.08 percent, according to the report posted on the agency’s website today.

Central bank chief Jose Dario Uribe said this week that inflation will end the year close to the mid-point of the central bank’s 2 percent to 4 percent target range.

Policy makers held their benchmark interest rate at 4.75 percent at their september policy meeting, after growth exceeded expectations. 

The Colombian economy expanded 4.9 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, beating the forecasts of all 29 analysts surveyed.

The gap between yields on government inflation-indexed bonds due 2.013 and similar-maturity fixed-rate debt, a gauge of bond traders’ inflation expectations known as the breakeven rate, rose to 2.82 percentage points today from 2.18 percent at the start of september.