On December 12, the Senate Finance Committee shelved the bill that would shave three zeros off the Colombian peso. The shelved initiative will cease to be debated by Congress unless it is reintroduced in 2019.

The bill had been introduced by the then Minister of Finance and Public Credit, Mauricio Cardenas, last March. It proposed lobbing three zeros off the peso and calling the new banknotes introduced as part of the bill “new pesos” (nuevos pesos). It also established a transition period between old and new banknotes. According to the former minister, this would simplify accounting, facilitate transactions and reduce inflation.

However, the Finance Committee decided to shelve the initiative, expecting it to impact negatively on the Colombian economy. The members of the committee estimated the costs of implementing the new currency at 400 billion pesos (USD 125,924,000).