Figure 6 Job creation by category  Wages (*)  (annual change, percent)  (annual change, percent)  15 8  8  Self-employment 7 10 6  Nominal 7  5  5  4  4  9 6  Wage  3  5  0  0  -3  -5  6  3  3  Real  2  2  1  1  -10 0  -6 11  12  13  14  15  16  17  0 11  12  13  14  15  16  17  (*) Both the nominal and the real correspond to the average of the annual variation of IREM and CMO. Source: National Statistics Institute (INE). 11. Domestic financial conditions remain favorable, particularly in terms of interest rates. Notwithstanding, credit volumes have decelerated with respect to previous years, as a result of overall subdued demand. Despite some increase in recent data, NPL ratios remain low, a clear sign that slower growth has not affected the financial health of companies and households. 12. The evolution of the local stock market has caught some attention lately, since the IPSA has increased about 17% this year and more than 30% since December 2015. Although these numbers might ring some bells, the performance of the Chilean index does not differ significantly from other regional stock markets and its recent behavior might just be a catch up from very low levels.
Figure 3 CPI Inflation (*)  Core inflation (*)  (annual change, percent)  (annual change, percent)  6  6  6  6  5  5  5  5  4  4  4  4  3  3  3  3  2  2  2  2  1  1  1  1  0  0  0 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19  0 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Dec. 2016 Report  Mar. 2017 Report  (*) The grey area, starting from the first quarter of 2017, corresponds to the forecast. Sources: Central Bank of Chile and National Statistics Institute. 6. Activity has been somewhat weaker than expected. According to recent data the output gap is currently larger than we anticipated in December. GDP grew by 1.6% in 2016, in line with what was anticipated. However, revised national account data suggests the economy was somewhat stronger towards the beginning of 2016 and weaker towards the end of the year, leaving a low starting point for 2017 and a higher base of comparison for the beginning of the year. The new data also point to weakness in investment-related areas and in sectors that tend to be more persistent, such as business services (Figure 4).