Colombia announced on Friday measures to help counter the rise of its currency that included keeping money abroad, buying dollars in forwards markets and helping industry by cutting import tariffs.
Emerging market countries have complained that loose monetary policy in slow-growing advanced economies like the United States have caused a surge of money into their economies, boosting currencies and asset prices.
"We're trying to counter the waves that are coming from the rest of the world, in particular the expansionary monetary policy of the United States that is flooding dollars into the world economy," Finance Minister Juan Carlos Echeverry said.
Bogota said it would not bring in the $1.5 billion projected to enter at the end of this year and the beginning of 2011 but did not say where that money was coming from. It also said that it would buy up to $3.7 billion in the forwards market during 2011 if conditions were acceptable.
Latin America's No. 4 oil producer has seen its currency strengthen due to inflows into its mining and energy sectors, dollar sales to finance government spending and a recovery from the global financial crisis.