Rosanna Costa: Recent developments in the Chilean financial system and challenges ahead

Speech by Ms Rosanna Costa, Governor of the Central Bank of Chile, at ChileDay, London, 12 December 2022. 

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

Central bank speech  | 
14 December 2022

Good morning distinguishes authorities and dear friends. I am going to talk about the recent developments in the financial system in Chile and the view of the Central Bank of the challenges ahead.

Introduction

In December of last year, the former Governor of the Central Bank of Chile (and nowadays the Minister of Finance) presented in this very same forum in London about the developments and prospects of the Chilean economy.

By then, our country was going through a process of strong recovery from major shocks that affected our economy: first the social unrest of 2019 and then the pandemic of Covid-19. Therefore, the discussion last year focused on the aftermath of the pandemic and the different measures that were adopted by the Central Bank and the government to mitigate its effects on the real economy.

Since July 2021, the Central Bank has been hiking the monetary policy interest rate, due precisely to strong pickup of household consumption driven by governmental aids and pension funds withdrawals. A year ago, the Central Bank also raised a note of caution for 2022 and 2023 due to the weakening of the capital markets, identifying several factors including the reduction of long-term savings due to pension withdrawals and its impacts on access to long-term financing for companies and individuals, risk of fiscal deterioration and persistent uncertainty, among others.