for more than a quarter, and growth took longer to recover. a different aspect of this emergency is its worldwide reach. the pandemic has swept over every continent, and many countries are applying similar containment measures, causing an unusual simultaneous contraction in both domestic and external demand. at the same time, however, the global scope of the sanitary emergency has favored the sharing of knowledge among those in charge of controlling it, and practices that seem to have worked better in some countries can be adopted. meanwhile, the simultaneous nature of the economic shock has led every central bank and government to promote measures in the same direction, providing greater support to prevent an economic meltdown. our country is also making great efforts to mitigate the impact of this emergency on the population ’ s wellbeing. the government has announced a series of measures, at a cost of usd 11. 5 billion, aimed at protecting employment and household income, while at the same time ensuring the continuity of businesses. in the cbc, we have taken swift decisions to mitigate the effects of this new scenario. first, over a period of two weeks we lowered the monetary policy rate ( mpr ) by 125 basis points to its technical minimum of 0. 5 %. then we introduced a set of extraordinary measures for a total in the order of usd 19 billion, to ensure adequate access to credit and the normal functioning of financial markets. these measures seek to preserve the correct transmission of monetary policy and facilitate the flow of credit to companies and individuals in need of financing to overcome this complex stage. the package of measures that the bank has implemented is very significant and should provide meaningful support for businesses and households to withstand this emergency. that does not prevent us from constantly monitoring the measures ’ efficiency and from standing ready to make new decisions. as we say in the report, the bank is always vigilant to respond to the challenges that will be posed by new risk scenarios. let me now describe our appraisal of the economic outlook and related risks. 2. the macroeconomic scenario as i said, the spread of covid - 19 is having massive effects on the world economy. at first, most concerns were focused on china and world trade, given china ’ s weight in global value chains. as the virus has spread to other continents, fears have increased that the speed of contagion may overwhelm hospital capacity, with high costs in lost human lives and well - being. in view of this, most governments have been adopting drastic sanitary policies

flows. this year, the world economy is projected to suffer a recession, combining drops in activity in the developed world with weak expansion in china. in this scenario, it is worth mentioning a contraction in the united states, where preliminary labor market figures point to a major impact on the economy. in the eurozone, the already low dynamism of its main economies ( i. e. germany, france, and italy ) and an already complex banking system situation, pose major challenges for stimulus policies. china will grow this year by 3 %, its lowest since 1990, with important repercussions in the rest of the world, both because of its integration in the value chains and because of its weight in the trade of some countries, including chile. the impact on trade is compounded by the negative impact on income as a result of falling commodity prices ( figure 4 ). especially relevant for chile is the drop in the copper price, which approached usd 2 per pound during march, and the forecast for this year is an average of usd 2. 15 per pound. this negative effect will be largely offset by the lower oil price, which dropped to levels between usd 20 to 30 per barrel in march. hence, the terms of trade deterioration should be less than 1 % in 2020. the drop in fuel prices will also help to contain the inflationary pressures and will contribute to sustain disposable income ( figure 5 ). a second transmission channel relates to the worsening of financial conditions. the global increase in risk perception and deep adjustments of financial prices restrict access to goverment and corporate funds. this has driven various central banks to take action to ensure the proper operation of the markets. in chile, among other measures, the cbc board adjusted the operation of liquidity programs it has been applying since november 2019, included corporate bonds among eligible collateral for all the liquidity operations in pesos offered by the bank and launched the purchase of banking bonds from the open - market operations system ( soma ) participants for an amount in uf1 equivalent to up to usd 4 billion. at our monetary policy meeting yesterday we also communicated that we will raise the amount of this bank bond purchase program to up to usd 8 billion. and for the outstanding balance ( usd 5. 5 billion ) the maturity constraint for eligible instruments will be eliminated. the steep drop in companies ’ activity because of social isolation of workers and clients and their inability to carry on their normal tasks has resulted in a significant increase in their financial