<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>Colombia devalues peso, cites market </TITLE> </HEAD> <HEAD><TITLE>Cleveland Live Business</TITLE></HEAD> <BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" LINK="#3111B0" ALINK="#628000" VLINK="#3111B0"> <TABLE BORDER=0 CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 WIDTH=594><TR><TD VALIGN=top ROWSPAN=5 WIDTH=94> <IMG SRC="/business/graphics/head/logo.gif" WIDTH=89 HEIGHT=120 ALIGN=bottom> <table><tr><td bgcolor=#C0D9E7>  <a href=/index.html target="_top">Home</a> <a href=/business target="_top">Business</a> <a href=/tech target="_top">Personal Tech</a> <a href=/business/quotes target="_top">Stocks</a> <a href=/business/lnews target="_top">Local Business News</a> <a href=/business/cap target="_top">Companies & People</a> <a href=http://forums.cleveland.com/forums/get/business.html target="_top">Financial Forum</a> <a href=/business/search target="_top">Business Search</a> <a href=http://classifieds.cleveland.com/employment/ target="_top">Job Classifieds</a> <a href=http://banx.com/cl/banx.htm target="_top">Banking & Finance</a> <a href=http://www2.uclick.com/client/cll/fh/ target="_top">Motley Fool</a> <a href=/business/pd100 target="_top">Plain Dealer 100</a> <a href=/community/volunteer/spotlight target="_top">Business Spotlight</a> <a href="/">C/L Sections</a> <a href="/whatsnew">What's New</a> <a href="/news">News</a> <a href="http://www.rainorshine.com/weather/index/sites/cleveland">Weather</a> <a href="/business">Business</a> <a href="/community">Community</a> <a href="/events">Calendars</a> <a href="/ultrafolder">Ultra Guide</a> <a href="/living">Living</a> <a href="/sports">Sports</a> <a href="/love">Love</a> <a href="http://forums.cleveland.com">Forums</a> <a href="/ultrafolder/altclev">Alt.Cleve</a> <a href="/education">Education</a> <a href="/wallppr">Wallpaper</a> <a href="/classi">Classifieds</a> <a href="/contact/">Contact Us</a> <a href="/search/">Search</a>   </td></tr></table> </TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=2 WIDTH=500 valign=top height=113> <CENTER><IMG SRC="/business/graphics/trans.gif" WIDTH=468 HEIGHT=3 ALIGN=bottom></CENTER> <CENTER><A HREF=http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/www.cleveland.com/business/business;ord=904845492 target=_blank><IMG SRC=http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/www.cleveland.com/business/business;ord=904845492 ALT=AD WIDTH=468 HEIGHT=60 BORDER=0></A> <img src=/business/graphics/trans.gif width=2 height=4></CENTER> <IMG SRC="graphics/head.gif"> </TD></TR><TR valign=top><TD VALIGN=top bgcolor="#003E87" WIDTH=5 valign=top><IMG SRC="/business/graphics/head/spacer.gif" WIDTH=5 HEIGHT=10 valign=top><img src=/business/graphics/trans.gif width=5 height=620></TD> <TD VALIGN=top width=495> <IMG SRC="/business/graphics/trans.gif" WIDTH=495 HEIGHT=1> <blockquote> <table align="right" valign="top" width="50" bgcolor="#c0c0c0" cellpadding="5"><tr><td align="center" valign="middle"> <a href=/cgi-bin/sendpage.cgi><img src=/sendthis/graphics/spfinal.gif border=0></a> </td></tr></table>  Colombia devalues peso, cites market Thursday, September 03, 1998ASSOCIATED PRESS BOGOTA, Colombia - Buffeted by global market turbulence, Colombia devalued its currency yesterday and said the peso could slide as much as 23 percent against the dollar. After the central bank announced the action, the peso immediately skidded 5.3 percent against the dollar, ending the day's trading at 1,526 pesos to the dollar. Traders said the central bank intervened heavily in the markets to support the currency. Finance Minister Juan Camilo Restrepo said the decision to devalue the currency was influenced by "the recent evolution of international financial markets." The Central Bank, in a statement released at midnight Tuesday, said it was raising the band within which the peso trades by 9 percentage points and would allow the currency to depreciate at an annual rate of 7 percent to 23 percent. The peso had come under pressure in recent days because of speculation of a devaluation in neighboring Venezuela, Colombia's second-largest trading partner. Restrepo also announced measures to pare the government's burgeoning budget deficit, including strengthening tax collections and reworking the state pension system. "Colombia is healing its public finances, and it will continue to be a good client of the international community," he said. Financial turmoil in Asia and Russia have heightened investors' fears about the financial markets of developing countries, including those in Latin America. Currency and stock markets throughout the region have been roiled in recent weeks. Jim Barrineau, Latin American equities strategist at Salomon-Smith Barney, said Colombia's devaluation was not dramatic and would probably not accelerate declines in regional financial markets. Others suggested it would put more pressure on Venezuela's beleaguered currency, the bolivar. Latin American finance ministers and central bank governors are to meet today at the International Monetary Fund in Washington to discuss ways to deal with the worldwide financial instability, which began a year ago in Asia. ©1998 Associated Press. All rights reserved. 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