Central Bank considered raising interest rate in February, but unanimously voted in opposition

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SANTIAGO. -   According to a summary of the Central Bank meeting held on February 7th of this year, the Council considered potentially raising the monetary policy rate by 25 base points.

Nevertheless, the Council (comprised of President José De Gregorio, Vice-President Jorge Desormeaux and Councilors Manuel Marfán, Enrique Marshall and Sebastián Claro) unanimously agreed to keep the interest rate at 6.25%.

According to the meeting’s summary, the proposal to possibly raise the interest rate was based “on the fact that the macroeconomic situation indicated by the Monetary Policy Report (IPoM) remained largely relevant, and that reports from January had failed to indicate a significant change in medium-term inflation patterns”. 

The document indicated that the choice to keep the interest rate at the same level was justified by “providing a window of time to collect reports on macroeconomic scenarios similar to that described by the Monetary Policy Report”.