Chile Forum

I believe they are around 6% as I recall hearing. The central bank has been trying to hold down inflation. Put that together with Chile's credit rating that is better than the United States ( climbing past Ice land I believe), a real estate market that has been immune to the international and U.S. mortgage crisis (Chilean banks are tight with their loans), and a lot of money has flowed in to Chile this year.

There is no way that we are going to see 550 again any time soon (famous last words). My concern is that if we did see that again, something sooooo bad happened in Chile that everyone took their money and ran.

This trucker strike is not looking good, but it does not seem to be completely crippling the country. Chile is far from a just in time economy We might complain about things being slow in Chile, but at times like this it means stores tend to have large stocks sitting around because they can not trust things to arrive on time under normal circumstances. The food exporters are going to get slapped hard, and that typically leads to lower prices at the stores in Chile.

I have extended the poll now for the rest of the year. Please update and change your vote as the confidence level in different rates changes. You can have up to 3 votes at any time for different rates to indicate the direction you believe it will move.

The funny thing is that we are basically at the same rate we were 6 months ago.

1 USD = 497.700 CLP

I am so glad I have been really lazy about going to the ATM this week. 500 anyone?

admin wrote:500 anyone?

I think it's going up. The Federal Reserve has signaled increases in interest rates. That should make the USD more attractive as an investment, driving up demand for dollars.

It's funny because the massive rate reductions were supposed to help homeowners with their adjustable-rate mortgages which were resetting. The Fed funds rate was cut 3%. But, mortgage rates only dropped 0.5%. So, the whole thing about helping homeowners was a fiction. It was just to bail out banking institutions. I don't even think it was about sub-prime mortgages. I think it was about the new "derivatives" investment which many of these institutions got into. Creative investments. And, the banks which were bailed out the most were those not regulated by FDIC or the fed. The least oversight, and the most bailout by society. All presented as helping homeowners.

Mark

I read yesterday that Bush has stated that his administration will attempt to strengthen the dollar, which may or may not include buying dollars and dumping other currencies. Let's see how high it gets.

admin wrote:1 USD = 497.700 CLP
. . . . 500 anyone?

I'd still like to see more choices on the high end of the poll, even up to CH$600.

ok, got more options but wiped the poll in the process. Sorry about that.

Hmmm . . . thanks, Charles. I cast two new votes but think the numerals posted might be a little off (e.g., "580" where one would expect to see "480").

Fixed.

Yeah I did vote for 500 a while back out of wishful thinking. When I saw that it was 497.95 on my dashboard money exchange widget (on a Mac) this morning, I was pleasantly surprised. Soon it might get back to the 505 rate from when we first arrived in Temuco back in late Nov. Atm time.

Update: I just checked xe.com and the rate was 499.101.

It is all relative, it might have something to do with Inflation!
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... 86E&refer=

Better described as a race to the bottom as all currencies inflate in tune to the international reserve currency, the USD.

Commodities, precious metals, farmland, etc. otherwise known as REAL THINGS are where capital preservation is to be found in the next decade.

Is this a typo?

USD United States Dollars 501.0000000000 0.0019960080
EUR Euro 777.6463518459 0.0012859316
GBP United Kingdom Pounds 984.6708906562 0.0010155677
CAD Canada Dollars 493.5447800068 0.0020261586
AUD Australia Dollars 476.6013916554 0.0020981894
JPY Japan Yen 4.6492202913 0.2150898296
INR India Rupees 11.6864940518 0.0855688623
NZD New Zealand Dollars 379.4490797481 0.0026353997
CHF Switzerland Francs 479.1714686189 0.0020869356
ZAR South Africa Rand 62.2207981933 0.0160717964
AFN Afghanistan Afghanis 10.8618368114 0.0920654598
ALL Albania Leke 6.3712087493 0.1569560878
DZD Algeria Dinars 8.0404429459 0.1243712575
ARS Argentina Pesos 166.2760996792 0.0060140934
AUD Australia Dollars 476.6013916554 0.0020981894

Yeah Charles! I just saw that! It broke back through the 500 mark!!!

here is wht I ggogled

1 U.S. dollar = 501.002004 Chilean pesos