Chile Central Bank Sticks at 5%

Chile’s Central Bank elected to keep the benchmark lending rate unchanged at 5% at its monthly monetary policy meeting on Thursday. In a statement, the Bank said that the external situation relevant to Chile remained favorable and international financial markets continued to offer benefits. Meantime, the domestic economy recovered some of its dynamism in the final quarter of last year and inflation was generally in line with expectations. Last month, the Bank raised its overnight lending rate by a quarter of a percentage points, taking analysts by surprise.