On December 5, the Central Bank’s Monthly Monetary Policy Report (IPOM) was  presented by its President, Mario Marcel, to the Senate´s Finance Committee. The report makes formal the decision of the Bank’s Board to maintain the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) at 2.75 percent in December. Marcel also unveiled the panel of experts who will be tasked with auditing the Central Bank up until September 2019; this will analyze its internal workings, feeding into recommendations on improving the Bank’s regulatory development process.

The report points to the prospect of an “economic slowdown” in Chile. The GDP growth forecast fell from its November estimate of 3.9 percent to 3.6 percent. The most important figure, though, was that concerning the Monetary Policy Rate, to be kept this month at 2.75 percent owing to “short-term issues related to the price of crude oil”. However, the study clarifies that in the long term the rate will continue to rise, the goal being for it to be at 4.5 percent by 2020.

In the same presentation, Marcel introduced the Panel of Experts that will audit the Central Bank throughout 2019. Its objective will be to evaluate the entity’s internal workings and processes, in order to present recommendations to improve the regulatory development process, and thus improve its capacity to monitor financial and price stability. The panel will work until September 2019, when it will present a Final Report with recommendations.