This study examines the recent marked slowdown in bank credit to the private sector in Latin America. Based on a study of eight countries - Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, and Venezuela - the magnitude of the slowdown is documented, comparing it to historical behavior...

Estimation of conventional Taylor rules for Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru shows that central banks increase their repo rate in response to increases in the output gap and, except in Peru, to deviations of inflation expectations from target. Using a Markov-Switching methodology, it is found...