Chile: No surprises in February’s monetary policy meeting

Summary

In line with both our expectations and those of consensus, the central bank kept the policy rate at 3.00% at today’s meeting. The communiqué continues to highlight worries about the persistence in the annual CPI inflation above 4% YoY, this time regarding the monthly increase in January’s core inflation measures (above expectations) and wage dynamism. The neutral bias for interest rates was kept unchanged, considering that recent activity figures are still in line with the latest Monetary Policy Report’s baseline scenario. In our view, the economy still requires additional monetary stimulus (BBVAe: 2.25% at 2015 eop) that should materialise during the end of 2Q15.

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