All the institutions involved in our payment system are devoting increasing resources to prevent cyberattacks, from banks and Norges Bank to our security authorities. However, we can never be completely certain that the system will be able to resist all possible attacks. We can lose money too. Ultimately, there may come a time when our systems have to be shut down for a period. We need to be prepared for a situation where the payment system – or parts of it – has to be shut down for a period. Contingency arrangements must provide protection against a wide range of incidents, not just cyberattacks. These arrangements primarily comprise a number of reserve solutions in our electronic systems. Our ultimate contingency and reserve solution is our banknotes and coins. This part of our contingency arrangements must be strengthened. On the advice of Norges Bank and Finanstilsynet (Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway), the Ministry of Finance recently circulated a consultation paper proposing a regulation to ensure the availability of cash in a contingency. What should the future form of money be? The role of banknotes and coins, which have been our central bank money since Norges Bank was founded a little more than 200 years ago, continues to diminish. Everyday payments are increasingly made using deposit money in bank accounts. New forms of payment are a new stage of this trend. This prompts the following question: what should the future form of money be?
Having a deep and solid financial system is an asset and a source of strength for Chile and that is why it is so important to safeguard the capital market as a central pillar to achieve the sustainable and inclusive growth that our country needs. 2. Moderating macroeconomic cycles and providing financial stability Let me now talk briefly about the actions taken by the Central Bank to contribute to the process of resolving macroeconomic imbalances after the pandemic as well as to mitigate the impacts of external shocks in the past moderate macroeconomic cycle. The year 2022 has been a very challenging time from a macroeconomic perspective. The end of many long-lasting quarantines and the return of economic activity as we knew it before Covid erupted in 2020 provided an auspicious start. Yet inflation was increasing both domestically and abroad. The most urgent and important, macroeconomic challenge that Central Bank of Chile had to address is inflation. Given that maintaining low and stable inflation is the main mandate of the central bank, this current situation undoubtedly represents the biggest test for the central bank at least since inflation targeting was adopted in the late 1990s. We have had a 4  difficult year in terms of inflation. In August, it reached a peaked to 14.1% yoy, and currently stands at 13.3% according to the figure released last Wednesday. This latest monthly inflation print showed an elevated number (1% for headline, 0.9% for core) highlighting that the deceleration of inflation is still not completely consolidated.