Chile central bank seen holding key rate in coming months

SANTIAGO: Chile's central bank is seen holding its benchmark interest rate at the current 5.0 percent at its monetary policy meeting on Thursday, the bank's latest poll of analysts showed on Tuesday.

The analysts held to their forecast that the bank's benchmark rate would be 5.25 percent within 11 months, matching the view expressed in the previous analysts' poll published a month ago.

On inflation, expectations were that consumer prices would rise 0.2 percent in February, according to the median forecast of 49 analysts.

The country's economy is seen expanding a brisk 5.0 percent in the first quarter of the year, compared with a year earlier, the poll showed, unchanged from last month's forecast for the period.