The Central Bank and Chilean macroeconomic policy in the 1990s

Abstract

This article aims to describe and analyse the formulation, implementation and results of the macroeconomic policy carried out by the Central Bank of Chile in the first half of the 1990s. Section I explains the importance of the macroeconomic balances from the standpoint of the Central Bank of Chile. Section II describes the Central Bank's objectives and its interpretation of the achievement of domestic and external balances. Section III summarizes the institutional, structural and conjunctural features which make the Chilean experience a special case. Section IV sets out the criteria adopted by the Bank in formulating and implementing its macroeconomic policy. Section V describes and explains the essential features of the monetary, exchange-rate, international reserves and capital account openness policies applied during the period. Finally, section VI describes the most important results of the above policies and sums up the main conclusions of this study.