Velasco declares that 2008 inflation drop "is good news"

SANTIAGO.- The Minister of Finance, Andrés Velasco, has deemed the 1.2% drop registered for the December CPI as good news for the country. The figure registered an accumulated increase of only 7.1% for 2008, which is significantly lower than the +8.5% surge that had been predicted by the Central Bank.

"(The December CPI) is good news (…) fuel went up and over the last few weeks they have been going down just as other imported products (…). This is completely different from the problem we were facing during the middle of this year", Velasco told Radio Cooperativa.

The minister indicated that "inflation is registering significant reductions and that is good for the people; for family budgets".

Velasco also stated that, according to estimates and thanks to the bundle of measures announced yesterday, the country could see growth of between 2% and 4% for 2009.

2We believe that as a result of this bundle of measures growth will be at least one percentage point higher than it would have been without the plan", he declared.