These two forces have created uncertainty and triggered a readjustment of portfolios to accommodate falling prices of financial assets and commodities, higher risk premiums and a generalized depreciation of emerging market currencies against the dollar. Overall, all these factors combined may have exacerbated the process of market adjustments, making it difficult to distinguish whether these are temporary or permanent in nature (figure 2). Although the aforesaid adjustments in the world are good news in the sense that they signal a transition towards a more balanced configuration of the global economy, for this year and next a less favorable international scenario for the Chilean economy is being configured. Accordingly, our growth projections for our trading partners are revised downwards, with higher credit costs and lower terms of trade than previously expected. The baseline scenario incorporates prices of $ and $ per pound for 2013 and 2014, respectively. This is quite lower than what we anticipated just a few months ago, when we projected prices of $ and $ per pound for those years. These elements add to the normalization that is being observed in domestic demand. Our economy is on a good standing to face the transition to this new configuration of the external scenario. The recent depreciation of the real exchange rate facilitates the adjustment of the Chilean economy, and monetary policy is available to make adjustments if required.
And the closure of the steelworks down the road a little over a year ago was a further blow to Teesside, with the loss of 2,200 jobs. 1  Yet it is not all doom and gloom. There are more people in work in the North-East today than at any time in its history. Over 48,000 more people have found jobs over the past 12 months. And the North-East alone has contributed 20% towards the overall fall in national unemployment over the last year. Or, if you like, the increase in employment over the last year is 7 times that at Nissan’s Sunderland plant alone. Despite the media headlines, the North-East has been one of the most dynamic areas of job creation in the country recently. Underpinning this above-average jobs performance has been above-average productivity growth in the region. So it is particularly appropriate to be here today at the Materials Processing Institute, which has been a global centre for research on the iron and steel industry since 1945. The Institute has contributed importantly to Teesside having a high concentration of high value-added industries, such as chemicals and processing, which have boosted jobs and productivity in the region. Today, I want today to discuss the economy, at both a national and regional level. I want to discuss what monetary policy can and, as importantly, cannot do to support the economy, nationally and regionally.