Introduction
Mr President of the Senate's Finance Commission, Senator Juan Pablo Letelier, senators members of this Commission, ladies, gentlemen,
I am grateful for your invitation to present the vision of the Board of the Central Bank of Chile (BCCh) on the recent macroeconomic developments, prospects, and implications for monetary policy. This vision is contained in detail in our December 2018 Monetary Policy Report published this morning. Its contents provide the background for the decision adopted by the Board at yesterday's Monetary Policy Meeting, and consider the October Imacec that was released today.
At yesterday's meeting, the Board decided unanimously to keep the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) unchanged at 2.75 percent. At the same time, we reiterated that the evolution of macroeconomic conditions make it possible and necessary to gradually reduce the monetary stimulus.