Productivity Growth and Disinflation in Chile

This paper analyzes the role productivity growth had on disinflation in Chile during the 1990s. It argues that productivity growth was key in avoiding the output costs of stabilization in a highly indexed economy. Disinflation from the early 1990s through 1998 was costless. Among the many external and domestic factors that contributed to good macroeconomic performance, which combined simultaneously very high rates of growth and declining inflation, productivity stands high. The paper’s simulation results illustrate the latter point.