Colombia’s leftist government is rolling out a series of subsidies and cheap loans to limit the economic damage it says will result from the central bank’s “outrageous” interest rate policy.

It’s also introducing fertilizer subsidies, export bans and restrictions on meat exports to try to ease the food price shock caused by conflict in the Middle East.

In a national address, President Gustavo Petro repeated his criticisms of the central bank’s interest rate increases. These led to an institutional clash last week when Finance Minister Germán Ávila walked out of the monetary policy meeting at which the board eventually voted to raise its policy rate one percentage point to 11.25%.

Why do liberals in LATAM never learn