The Economic Monitoring Indicator (ISE) in Colombia measures the monthly evolution of real productive activity in the country and functions as a short-term preview of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This Monday, DANE released the results of the ISE corresponding to February 2026 and recorded a growth of 1.65%. But, despite remaining in positive territory, the figure stands for the second consecutive time below the 2% threshold. The situation can be read as economic growth in Colombia losing momentum.
According to DANE, most economic activities showed growth, although following the conceptual order it must first be said that the only ones that fell were the primary activities (agriculture, livestock, hunting, forestry and fishing; mining and quarrying), which showed a decrease of 2.08% compared to the month of February. Regarding the series adjusted for seasonal and calendar effects, for February 2026 it stood at 103.51, which represented a decrease of 2.12% compared to February 2025.
In contrast, for February 2026, the index of secondary activities (which transform raw materials obtained by the primary sector into finished products, capital goods or consumer goods and mainly include manufacturing industry, construction, handicrafts and energy generation) in its original series stood at 95.96, which represented a growth of 0.40% compared to February 2025 (95.58).
A similar behavior was observed in tertiary activities (which do not produce tangible material goods, but commercialize, distribute and provide services to satisfy the needs of the population and support the primary and secondary sectors, and include commerce, transport, tourism, education, health, finance and public administration), which in their original series stood at 132.89, which represented a growth of 2.55% compared to February 2025.
Among tertiary activities, those that grew the most in the second month of the year were public administration and defense; compulsory social security plans; education; human health care and social services activities; artistic, entertainment and recreational activities and other service activities; activities of households as employers; undifferentiated activities of households as producers of goods and services for their own use.
Do not confuse short-term improvement with structural strength
After the DANE report on the behavior of the ISE, the president of the Colombian American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham Colombia), Maria Claudia Lacouture, said, quoted by Portafolio, that it is “important for the economy to move, but be careful not to confuse short-term improvement with structural strength. The February ISE shows an improvement, yes. But it also once again leaves a warning: the economy may look better on the outside, while inside it still has weaknesses.”
She asked that the ISE data for February 2026 be examined closely, precisely because of the negative territory in which primary activities remain. “Why? Because when you break down the data, the story changes: services push, industry barely holds, and primary activities remain in the red. That is why we continue insisting on something very simple: we cannot stay with the surface picture.”
For Lacouture, the underlying problem is still there. “Colombia needs an economy that not only moves, but that regains solid foundations to truly grow,” she said in the same outlet. “And those foundations have proper names: more investment, more productivity and more sectors pulling at the same time. Because an economy does not become solid by looking better for one month; it becomes solid when it stops depending on partial impulses and begins to grow with real foundations. And that is still pending.”
To Lacouture’s words, which question without naming it the government of Gustavo Petro, were added those of the president of the National Association of Entrepreneurs of Colombia (ANDI), Bruce Mac Master, who also stated in the same economic newspaper that “the data at the beginning of 2026 once again show that the country is growing at very low rates for current needs and the complex situation being faced locally and globally.”
“The low growth observed is supported in an important part by public spending, configuring an unsustainable situation that, moreover, goes against what is required in terms of public finances for the country,” he concluded.