Colombia is seeking a large lending arrangement with the International Monetary Fund, but no decision is expected in the coming weeks, sources familiar with the talks said on Monday, 9 November.

Bloomberg reported earlier that the Andean country was negotiating for a 15 billion dollar stand-by arrangement with the IMF. One source told Reuters the amount could be somewhat lower than 15 billion dollars, adding that no decision had been made. A second source said the discussions were ongoing, with no immediate agreement in sight. The IMF had no immediate comment on the report.

The talks come as Colombia faces a widening fiscal gap. The government has projected a fiscal deficit of 7.2 percent of gross domestic product this year and a record 9.4 percent next year, figures that have raised concerns about how the country will finance its spending.

How the talks began

Reuters reported early last month that Colombia could seek between 8 billion and 20 billion dollars in assistance from the IMF. Current and former officials said at the time that the instrument best suited to Colombia's circumstances would be the Precautionary and Liquidity Line, a facility designed for countries with sound economic fundamentals and institutional frameworks.

President Abelardo De La Espriella, who took office in August, ordered his economic team to open talks with the IMF to seek a negotiated solution to the fiscal crisis. A team from the finance ministry travelled to Washington to meet the lender, at the direction of the president, and Finance Minister Miguel Gomez has been leading the engagement.

The finance ministry has also asked the IMF to send a technical mission to carry out an independent assessment of the country's economy and the government's plans, under the consultation process set out in Article IV of the Fund's statutes.

The scale of the fiscal challenge

Colombia cancelled its Flexible Credit Line agreement with the IMF in 2025, and the Fund's last Article IV consultation for the country was in September 2025. In that review, before the fiscal outlook deteriorated further, the IMF said Colombia needed to cut its budget by at least the equivalent of 3.2 percent of GDP over three years.

Colombia holds Special Drawing Rights equivalent to roughly 2.78 billion dollars, allowing it to access about 16.6 billion dollars over the lifetime of the SDR agreement, according to Reuters. Former Finance Minister Mauricio Cardenas has suggested the government should seek 20 billion dollars in loans from the IMF with an average maturity of four years.

Analysts say a key commitment under any deal would be the so-called Rescue Law, a bill containing spending cuts equivalent to 2.2 percent of GDP, or about 14 billion dollars, which the government planned to propose to lawmakers in mid-October. Current and former officials have warned that Colombia would face major hurdles in meeting the commitments that a lending programme would require.

What happens next

An IMF official subsequently said Colombia urgently needed to start a fiscal consolidation, noting that the IMF was working closely with Colombian officials. For now, however, the talks remain at the discussion stage: no financing agreement has been reached, no amount has been agreed, and no decision is expected in the coming weeks, according to the sources cited by Reuters.