OECD Reviews of Labour Market and Social Policies: Colombia 2026

1. The economic context in Colombia

Since 2023, Colombia’s economic context has been characterised by moderate growth, a gradual decline in inflation from earlier highs, and relatively strong labour market performance, despite persistent structural challenges such as volatile investment and high labour informality.

After a strong post-pandemic recovery in 2021-2022, economic growth slowed markedly in 2023 and early 2024 as high interest rates and weaker investment weighed on domestic demand. In 2025, real GDP growth rose to 2.6% (Table 1.1), led by buoyant private consumption and government spending and a continued, though volatile, recovery of investment (OECD, 2025[1]). Inflation surged in the aftermath of the pandemic and global supply shocks, reaching double‑digit levels in 2022 and 2023. Since then, inflation has declined gradually as monetary policy tightened and global price pressures eased, reaching 5.1% in 2025 (Table 1.1).

Despite slower economic growth, the Colombian labour market has remained comparatively robust. The unemployment rate has fallen to 8.9% in 2025 (Table 1.1), reflecting steady job creation and continued expansion in services and commerce. Employment growth has been supported by the recovery in domestic demand and by the resilience of informal and self-employment activities, which often act as a buffer during periods of slower economic growth. However, structural labour market challenges remain significant as informality continues to affect a large share of workers (see Chapter 2), limiting productivity growth and reducing access to social protection. The large migration inflow from Venezuela since 2017 generate additional challenges in the labour market and pressure on social services, though a series of measures facilitated the regularisation of migrants and improves their opportunities in the labour market (OECD, 2025[2]).

Table 1.1. Key economic indicators for Colombia and OECD countries on average, 2019-2025

	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Annual real GDP growth
Colombia	3.2	‑7.2	10.8	7.3	0.8	1.5	2.6
OECD	1.8	‑4.1	6.4	3.3	1.7	1.8	..
Consumer price index (annual growth)
Colombia	3.5	2.5	3.5	10.2	11.7	6.6	5.1
OECD	2.1	1.3	4.0	9.4	6.8	5.1	..
Unemployment rate (15 years and over)
Colombia	10.4	15.9	13.8	11.2	10.2	10.2	8.9
OECD	5.4	7.2	6.2	5.0	4.8	4.9	..

Source: OECD Data Explorer, https://data-explorer.oecd.org.

Both monetary and multidimensional poverty rates continued their declining trend of the past decade, overcoming the spike around the COVID‑19 pandemic in 2020 (Figure 1.1). As a result of solid economic growth combined with an expansion and maturation of social policies, rural areas benefited particularly. Even so, in 2024, 31.8% of the total population (more than 16 million people) and 42.5% of the rural population (nearly 5 million people) still lived in monetary poverty in Colombia. Extreme poverty has not fully recovered from the pandemic spike in 2020 and remains above the pre‑pandemic rate, at 11.7% in 2024. In addition, Colombia continues to be a highly unequal country, with a Gini coefficient of 0.551 in 2024, which is even higher than in 2013 when the Gini coefficient stood at 0.546 (Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1. Poverty has declined over the past decade, but inequality and extreme poverty remain high in Colombia

Poverty and inequality indicators for the total country and rural area only, 2013-2024

Note: Colombia’s Statistical Office, DANE, distinguishes between municipal capitals, populated centres in rural areas, and dispersed rural areas. “Rural areas” in the figures cover both the populated centres in rural areas and the dispersed rural areas. Monetary poverty and extreme monetary poverty represent the percentage of the Colombian population whose per capita household income is below the (extreme) poverty line. Multidimensional poverty evaluates the satisfaction (or non-deprivation) that an individual has with respect to certain characteristics that are considered vital, such as educational conditions of the household, conditions of childhood and youth, health, work, access to public services at home, and housing conditions. The five dimensions of the index include 15 indicators. Households are considered multidimensionally poor when they are deprived in at least 33% of the indicators. A weighting of each indicator is taken into account.

Source: Colombia’s Statistical Office (DANE).

References

[2] OECD (2025), International Migration Outlook 2025, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/ae26c893-en.

[1] OECD (2025), OECD Economic Outlook, Volume 2025 Issue 2: Resilient Growth but with Increasing Fragilities, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9f653ca1-en.