Fashion pulse: Colombia - March 2026

Colombian fashion retail is growing, but lagging behind the broader consumer economy.

Consumer prices (March)

The clothing and footwear component of Colombia’s consumer price index rose 2.61 percent year-on-year in March, according to Colombia’s national statistics office DANE — unchanged from February and 2.95 percentage points below the +5.56 percent headline reading. Only Recreation & Culture inflated more slowly, at +2.38 percent. Apparel prices are still rising, but more slowly than the overall basket for a third consecutive month.

Retail sales (February — latest available)

Clothing and textile sales rose 2.71 percent in real terms year-on-year in February, against a +10.90 percent real expansion in total retail over the same period, according to DANE. The eight-point gap is structural: Colombian consumers are spending, but apparel is not where the spending is going. Electronics and telecommunications equipment rose +39.23 percent in real terms, vehicles +26.62 percent and household appliances +19.33 percent. Year-to-date through February, clothing and textile sales are up +3.96 percent real; footwear and leather goods +5.49 percent. Placed against Colombia’s year-to-date total retail real growth of +9.34 percent, they sit at less than half that pace.

Footwear versus apparel

Footwear is outperforming apparel on every horizon in the DANE data: +3.67 percent real in February versus +2.71 percent for clothing and textiles, +5.49 percent year-to-date versus +3.96 percent, and +7.66 percent on the trailing twelve-month basis versus +5.00 percent. The differential is small but consistent across all three timeframes.

Monetary policy and currency

The macro pivot that began in January deepened through March. On 31 March, Banco de la República’s board voted to raise the policy rate by 100 basis points to 11.25 percent, effective 1 April. It was the second +100 bp move after a hike in January, taking cumulative tightening to 200 basis points in two meetings and reversing a nine-month hold at 9.25 percent. The peso averaged 3,714.86 per dollar in March, a 1.0 percent depreciation versus February’s mean of 3,678.70, and touched 3,797.64 on 4 March — the weakest reading since early January — before recovering into month-end.

Note: this article combines the most recent official data available at the time of writing. Reporting lags differ by indicator and country, so not all figures refer to the same month. Each data point is labelled with its reference period.