Alfredo Coutiño, director for Latin America at Moody’s Analytics: “Chile’s economy continued to advance at the start of the year after a strong expansion in the last quarter of 2024. The expansion is propelled by the industrial recovery and services in an economy functioning without the monetary brake. Domestic demand is the main engine of growth, stimulated by the monetary easing implemented by the central bank through interest rate cuts, which have stimulated the demand for financing and reduced the cost of credit. Thus, Chile’s expansion is mostly policy-induced and fueled by monetary easing. However, growth has shown signs of moderation this year, from annual rates of 4 percent at the end of 2024 to 2.3 percent in January and 1.3 percent in February. This moderation is a natural convergence to more consistent rates after the 2024 expansion. An inconvenience of a policy-induced expansion is the development of excess domestic demand produced by the fuel provided to consumption and investment. Given the economy’s limited production capacity, the excess demand is ultimately…”