without maintaining negative gaps for a prolonged period of time, as was once projected to occur. the projections that i will present to you assume that the economy will continue to grow in the coming quarters, with increasing investment and consumption, benefiting from factors such as the higher copper price, the decrease in the real exchange rate ( rer ) and steadily improving financial conditions. considering this scenario, at our monetary policy meeting yesterday we decided to lower the monetary policy rate by 25 basis points, to 5. 75 %. with this, the mpr has accumulated a drop of 550 basis points in the last year. the macroeconomic scenario i will begin my review of the macro economy with a quick look at the movements of domestic demand and activity. as expected, activity has been increasing. in the first quarter, the seasonally adjusted gdp series again posted an increase over the previous quarter, by rising 1. 9 %. as anticipated in the last ipom, and confirmed by the imacec of march and april, part of this growth came from supplyside factors, which have been reversing. our economy continues to show heterogeneity among sectors. the dynamism of services continues to stand out, along with the rebound of some branches of commerce. the weakness of construction continues to be the main counterpoint, with activity levels remaining low. on the other hand, the greater momentum of exports has favored the performance of some sectors, which has been influenced by the increase in the international prices of certain products, among other elements ( figure 1 ). final domestic demand — minus inventories — has been regaining momentum. its performance in the first quarter exceeded expectations, especially in consumption. the gradual recovery of household spending has taken place against the backdrop of rising employment and real wages, which have been underpinning the growth of the wage bill. the services component remains the most dynamic component of private consumption, along with higher demand for non - durable goods in the first quarter. government consumption also outpaced projections ( figure 2 ). while still weak, gross fixed capital formation ( gfcf ) ceased its deterioration observed in the second half of last year. when corrected for seasonality, gfcf had a zero quarterly variation in the first quarter, reflecting a more stable performance of machinery & equipment and construction & works. within the latter, the building component remained slower than the engineering works one, a trend that would continue according to partial information for the second quarter. in any case, all

rosanna costa : macroprudential policy and the countercyclical buffer opening remarks by ms rosanna costa, governor of the central bank of chile, at the workshop " macroprudential policy and the ccyb ", santiago de chile, 16 december 2022. * * * good morning. i am pleased to welcome everyone to today's workshop on macroprudential policy and the countercyclical buffer. thank you for being here, participating and lending your attention to this important topic. we have gathered a great lineup of speakers, who will address a range of timely and important issues on the matter. in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, banking regulators agreed on an updated set of banking regulations aimed at improving the resilience of the global financial system, highlighting among them the role of new buffers intended to help banks build sufficient resources in normal times so that in a period of stress they can absorb losses and avoid a disruptive reduction of lending. the buffers have two objectives ( basel committee, 2020b ) : first, to ensure that banks absorb losses in times of stress without breaching their minimum requirements ; and second, to keep credit flowing to the real economy in a downturn by lending to creditworthy businesses and households. in december 2010, the basel committee on banking supervision ( bcbs ) published the basel iii framework with the global regulatory standards on bank capital adequacy and liquidity, including a countercyclical capital buffer ( ccyb ). its primary objective would be to protect the banking sector from periods of excessive aggregate credit growth, often associated with the accumulation of systemic risk. in general terms, the ccyb would be activated and increased by authorities whenever aggregate credit growth was judged to be excessive and associated with a build - up of system - wide risk. the buffer can be reduced during a downturn to help ensure that banks maintain the flow of credit in the economy. considering that this is a new macroprudential tool, the evidence of implementations is still limited. notwithstanding that, the number of countries that have developed a policy framework is increasing and the number of jurisdictions that have set a positive buffer level increased significantly over recent years. until now, around forty countries have been using the ccyb, with heterogeneous effects depending on their local conditions and vulnerabilities. furthermore, during the covid - 19 crisis, many countries released their countercyclical capital buffers, marking the first