Chilean President Sebastian Pinera believes the central bank should do more to tame a stronger peso while a bank board member said the local currency is moving closer to surpass its coherent range, a local newspaper quoted both as saying on Sunday.
Pinera, a Harvard-trained economist, told La Tercera daily that he plans to meet soon with the central bank to co-ordinate policies and "together build a more competitive exchange rate that boosts the exporter sector."
"The government has some instruments (to battle a stronger peso); public spending and opening capital accounts, but the central bank has a share of responsibility on this issue," he was quoted as saying. He declined to say whether the central bank should intervene in the Forex market, but when asked if the bank should do more to control the currency he said: "It can always do more."
The peso, which briefly surpassed the 480-per- dollar psychological mark on Friday, has strengthened some 13 percent since the beginning of July.
In a separate interview released the same day, central bank board member Rodrigo Vergara marked a change in the bank's speech by saying that the peso "at current levels is closer to exiting the (coherent) range."