To curb the plummet of the peso, which recorded a new record low on Thursday, November 28, the Central Bank of Chile announced the injection of 20 billion dollars (18.16 billion euros) in the economy, in a context of serious social crisis.

It said in a statement that it had "decided to intervene on the foreign exchange market for a maximum amount of 20 billion dollars, from Monday, December 2 and until May 29, 2020", with a "sale of dollars (on the foreign exchange market) for up to $ 10 billion "and a" sale of (risk) hedging instruments for up to $ 10 billion ".

The Central Bank had already announced November 13 injection of $ 4 billion, which did not help stem the fall of the local currency. The peso lost 1.1% Thursday, reaching a record low for the second day in a row, with a dollar trading at close against 828.36 pesos.

During the day, the peso even dipped to 838 units to the dollar, because of the concern of the markets in the face of a social crisis that does not subside, combined with a fall in international copper prices, of which Chile is the world's largest producer.

On November 27, it had already lost 1.6% of its value against the dollar, trading at 812 pesos against a greenback, already a record low.

Since October 18, the currency has lost about 15%

According to the Central Bank, because of the "low indexation in dollars" of the Chilean economy, the peso variations have no immediate effect on households and businesses and inflation will remain "moderate", in below 3%.

The institution, however, justified its intervention because "an excessive degree of volatility of the exchange rate hampers the formation of prices, the decisions of expenditure and production of the persons and the companies", causing "concerns on the markets".

Since 18 October, the date of the worst social crisis of three decades in Chile, the currency has lost about 15% of its value.

If the decline in the price of copper caused by the trade war between the United States and China has had an impact on the fall of the peso, it "is 90% due to the crisis," says AFP. economist of the University of Santiago, Francisco Castañeda.

The Central Bank also advanced its monetary policy meeting on December 5 to try to reassure the markets that hope to maintain the policy rate at 1.75%.

On Thursday, while the Chilean government met for the first time with the unions to try to find a way out of the crisis, the IPSA, the main index of the Santiago Stock Exchange, also closed down (-2, 23%).

With AFP