Indeed, the Constitutional Organic Act mandates the CBC Board to present at this time of the year an evaluation of the progress of the policies and programs of the current year, a report of those proposed for the following calendar year, the overall economic projections that sustain them, and a recount of the factors that can affect its balance sheet. In other words, it is not just about presenting the Monetary Policy Report, but a more complete account about the evolution of our institution. However, today I wish to go beyond the usual institutional account. I would like in particular to recount the content and progress of the Bank’s Strategic Plan that I anticipated on this same venue last year, as well as share some additional steps that we intend to take on the issue of institutional transparency. Our Strategic Plan 2018-2022 was prepared during the better part of last year and is currently in full implementation. Although this type of exercise was not new to our institution, this time it relied on an extensive process of external consultations, gathering of relevant information and internal deliberation unprecedented in the CBC, which is very innovative 9  for the central banking community in general. This exercise was completed at the end of 2017 with the approval of the Plan. Below I summarize its main contents and advances. This Strategic Plan 2018-2022 updated the basic definitions of the CBC’s institutional mission and vision.
The main risk continues to be an abrupt deterioration of financial conditions facing emerging economies, especially because markets seem to be more reactive to negative news. In this area, what happens in the US is still relevant, in terms of both the evolution of inflation and its outlook and the unfolding of the trade conflict. This situation has revived the fears about China, especially the risks implicit in the imbalances it maintains in several of its markets. In Europe, among other issues, the uncertainty surrounding Brexit is cause for concern. In the context of normalizing global financial conditions, investors have drawn a line between the emerging economies they perceive as more vulnerable and those with more solid fundamentals. Chile meets the current situation with good macroeconomic indicators in terms of growth, inflation and the balance of its fiscal and external accounts. Moreover, our floating exchange rate makes it possible to cushion external shocks, and the monetary policy framework permits us to act countercyclically. This is feasible due to the low exposure to interest rate and exchange rate risks by the main economic agents. On financial matters, one issue drawing attention in this conjuncture is the external debt. The Box in this Report, entitled “Financial Volatility and External Debt”, provides an in-depth analysis of this issue, particularly with regard to corporate debt.