Rosanna Costa: Chile's March 2022 Monetary Policy Report

Presentation by Ms Rosanna Costa, Governor of the Central Bank of Chile, before the Finance Commission of the Honourable Senate of the Republic, 30 March 2022.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Introduction

Mr. President of the Senate's Finance Commission, senator Juan Antonio Coloma, senators members of this Commission, ladies, gentlemen,

This is my first presentation as the governor of the Central Bank of Chile before the honorable Senate's Finance Commission. Being the first woman to hold such an important position adds an extra dose of responsibility to this great task. I would therefore like to thank this Commission for the way it has always dealt with the Bank, and I hope that in the coming years we will not only maintain this relationship, but we will make it increasingly beneficial for our work and for our country.

In what follows, as we do four times a year, I will share with you the views of the Central Bank Board on recent macroeconomic developments, with their prospects and implications for monetary policy. These views are presented in detail in the March 2022 Monetary Policy Report (MPR) that we published this morning. This background also provides the support for the decision adopted by the Board at yesterday's monetary policy meeting.

The Report I am presenting to you today shows that inflation and its short-term outlook have continued to rise, which is certainly having a negative impact on the well-being of every person. Furthermore, in our forecasts, which that I will detail in a few minutes, we anticipate that the annual variation of the CPI will approach levels in the order of 10% by the middle of this year.