This is largely due to improved growth prospects in the emerging markets and to the fact that while in the advanced economies interest rates are and will continue to be low, in emerging countries monetary policy rates have been going up, to very high levels in some of them (figure 10). In Chile, the current account balance for this year (i.e., our expenditures in excess of our income) will be not too different from zero, which means that there will not be a significant net capital inflow to finance excess spending (figure 11). It is thus important to note that I have not mentioned among the causes of the peso appreciation net capital inflows, which in some countries may be having some significant impact. In the 1990s we did receive substantial net capital inflows, but today they are not the main point. Certainly this calls for continual followup because the funds will always flow to the economies with the better prospects for growth, including Chile. As I said, sometimes these flows can trigger lasting misalignments in the real exchange rate with respect to its trend fundamentals. IV. Final remarks  We are well aware of the challenges facing exporters under the present circumstances. In particular, we understand the difficulties exporters in the agricultural sector are enduring, whose primary destinations – Europe and the US – have not fully recovered yet from the financial crisis, and with which our currency has appreciated more. This situation is particularly complex in some regions.
–  Export quantities continued to improve with the year-on-year growth rate in a high positive. This represents both the pick-up in our trading partners' purchasing power and our staying ability to compete. Another factor that continued to firm up the recovery process came from the fiscal front. –  During the first four months of fiscal year 2002, the budget disbursement rate accelerated compared to same period last year. This front-loaded fiscal stance will surely contribute to a sooner recovery. I must note here, however, that the jury is still out on what these early signs may portend. I believe the impassioned judgment on the speed of the recovery must await more data. Ladies and gentlemen, It is rather unfortunate that while economists are busy debating whether these early signs point to a tangible recovery, the recent strong boom in the stock market seemed to have overwhelmed that debate. On this point, let me say that we need to distinguish between the recent asset price performance and the economic fundamentals. It is true that the performance of the listed SET firms has improved. The improvement was led in part by better-than-expected profitability of listed companies. Corporate profits in general were also on the rise in 2001, compared to 2000. With this improvement, we are now more able to segregate the winners that is, the strong performers -- from those lagging behind. This presents a stark contrast to the previous pictures in which almost all sectors were judged to have performed poorly.