The head of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, Mauricio Cárdenas, announced that on March 16 – the beginning of the legislative term – the initiative to eliminate the three zeros of the Colombian peso will be filed.

Through a video broadcast by the Ministry, Cárdenas considered that removing the zeros “simplifies the lives of Colombians, simplifies accounting, and now that we have more tourists, they will also facilitate transactions and changes to those who come from abroad. The agreement we have with the Bank of the Republic, who will be the competent entity for the transition, is that as soon as inflation falls below 4%, this initiative would be introduced. We are ready for when the moment arrives. ”

As informed previous on Summaries of the Week, the general manager of the Bank of the Republic, Juan José Echavarría, asked the Congress to discuss the elimination of three zeros in the national currency. The general prosecutor, Néstor Humberto Martinez, pronounced himself on the same sense,when considering that this change is the solution to “leave worthless illicit money”.

For his part, President Juan Manuel Santos said that since 2015 the government has contemplated the idea of eliminating the three zeros. “Any change of this nature should be gradual, we have preliminary costs, and we had anticipated, and that’s why the new notes (which began to be issued in 2016) do not have zeros.”