Chile’s peso surged as local markets reopened after the central bank’s surprise decision to slow down the pace of interest-rate cuts last week. The peso jumped 2.8% to 907.1 per US dollar as of 9:45 a.m. New York time on Monday, according to local pricing data compiled by Bloomberg. It was the first trading session in Santiago since late Thursday when the central bank lowered borrowing costs by half a percentage point to 9%, as expected by just five of 22 analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Sixteen others had forecast a 75-basis point cut. In a statement accompanying the decision, policymakers wrote that they opted for a ... (full story)