The Central Bank of Chile’s board unanimously voted to raise policy rates by 75 basis points on August 31, accelerating its process of policy normalisation.

The move follows the board’s decision to raise policy rates by 25bp in July, the first since the beginning of the pandemic. Its policy rate now stands at 1.5%.

The board said it intends “to avoid the accumulation of macroeconomic imbalances” in its policy statement. It said that, if left unchanged, the current economic environment “could