Auswahl der wissenschaftlichen Literatur zum Thema „Culture shock“

Globalization can help people gain knowledge and improve learning about how a diversity of the cultures does not cause any conflict, misunderstand, and share knowledge across the culture peacefully. It can be termed as cross-cultural communication. Based on this paper's aims, this article discussed the theory of multiculturalism (cultural diversity), cross-cultural communication, the types of culture shock, the cases of culture shock experience such as the stages of culture shock and reverse culture shock. Thus, this study aims to discuss the theory of multiculturalism and an overview of culture shocks experienced by the student exchange program. As a result, shock culture experience is found by most of the people who live for some duration times. However, they will face reverse culture shock when returning to their home country, even though some returnees do not experience it.

This project is for Rinker Center for International Programs at Ball State University to provide useful information to international and American students. The project consists of ten video interviews with the director of Rinker Center for International Programs and nine international students presenting Ghana, France, Germany, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, China, Taiwan, and Turkey. Each interviewee provides cultural differences between American culture and their cultures. In addition, the interviewees tell their personal solutions for coping with cultural difficulties based on their experiences in the United States or different cultures. The director was given three questions and the nine international students were asked ten questions.Each video interview is categorized under country menus and question menus designed with Adobe Macromedia Flash 8 to be navigated by clicking each menu button on a computer.
Department of Telecommunications

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Esta Dissertação apresenta um estudo de caso sobre a formação e consolidação da cultura organizacional em uma empresa recém criada, fruto de processo de fusão que envolveu seis outras empresas. Para tanto, utiliza uma pesquisa tipo survey para levantar a percepção dos integrantes e análise de documentação. É investigado o processo de formação e consolidação da cultura, analisando a aderência ao modelo de gestão adotado pela empresa, bem como as características e diferenças observadas nas diferentes unidades que vieram a compor a nova empresa e sua evolução ao longo dos seus dois anos de vida. São, também, apresentados conceitos e definições sobre cultura organizacional, incluindo a discussão sobre a cultura organizacional nos processos de fusões e aquisições. O presente trabalho visa, também, contribuir para a organização estudada, refletindo sobre o resultado das ações empreendidas e fornecendo elementos que podem ser usados para o gerenciamento do processo de mudança ainda em curso.
Salvador

Many countries are going through severe transitions as they move from one system of economic management to another, experiencing a traumatic state which we term collective culture shock. Taking a cue from psychology, we suggest that collective culture shock can be seen as comprising four components: integration, assimilation, separation, and marginalisation. The movement towards free market economic systems calls for complex institutional adjustments, but these seem very difficult for societies to introduce in a systematic way. In order to exemplify collective culture shock, we examine four countries (including one country group): Russia, East Central Europe, South Africa, and Japan. Our treatment of these countries will show how collective culture shock is the product of complex economic, social and political forces specific to each situation. We hope to demonstrate that the phenomenon of collective culture shock is an important conceptual tool for managers responsible for international business strategy to help them to understand the complexities of change - or rather resistance to change - in transitional economies. (author's abstract)
Series: EI Working Papers / Europainstitut

I developed a resource to aid people going through reentry and reverse culture shock after returning from long stays abroad. Based on my experience with the JET Programme, I used North American JET alumni as my case study, but aimed to develop a solution that would be scalable and useful for people in other programs and situations. While JET and other similar programs assist and support participants in the initial journey abroad and during their stay, they tend to not provide much support when the participants return. This is a real issue because culture shock upon returning from an extended trip is stronger and generally unexpected than what’s experienced at the initial departure. Because of the increasing number of people going abroad for extended stays, this highlights a very real need for support, either from the organizing groups or from alumni of those groups and programs. I began my exploratory research with an extensive survey, where I gathered information on people’s situations prior to joining JET, various qualitative and quantative aspects of their time in Japan, and their experiences upon their return. I continued to conduct exploratory research to gather people’s personal experiences, and I worked closely with JET alumni during my generative and evaluative research phases as well. From the beginning, I leaned towards an online solution that would connect JET alumni regardless of distance or location. Though I considered other options, this approach was vindicated by the strong needs for “community” and “shared experiences” voiced by JET alumni throughout all my research. Ultimately I developed a plan for an online platform that enables people to share their experiences through writing and other media, as well as to communicate and connect easily with others. The name of this platform is okaeri, which means both “return” (verb) and “welcome” (greeting) in Japanese. Beyond the site’s structure and function, the key element is the visual-verbal rhetorical strategy throughout the content and layout, which will set an empathetic tone and perpetuate the sense of community that already exists among JET alumni.

This is a text about a work of art, “The Room”, and about the process that brought it about. The process includes experiments in clay bodies, mixing different elements with the base clay in search of a material both suitable to work with in terms of texture and color, but also rich in less tangible qualities, as I mix in elements which carry a set of values of cultural identity. The text follows the path towards development of the final piece during the two-year course of the master program at Konstfack. During these two years, external factors such as dealing with the issues of culture shock, and searching for a place to live, interfere with my way of thinking, leading to unexpected turns in the direction of my artistic process. Searching for an apartment finds me standing in strangers' apartments as they sell their homes, their ways of life and their house rules. These sometimes awkward meetings provide a good starting point in my research of people's habits and habitats. In trying to understand some elements of Swedish culture, I become aware of the fact of my own culture and start thinking about it from an outside perspective. Eventually, the central question of the essay crystallizes: Who will carry on the traditional craft techniques of my home country? Romania is the rare place in Europe where crafts are still being practiced as they have been for hundreds of years, in the villages by crafts persons leading traditional lives. As the villages are emptied of young people, moving into cities, and as Romania as a whole is drained of a large part of its young and ambitious generation, moving to other European countries for jobs and education, a trend that I am of course part of, the traditions that I have taken for granted, growing up with my grandmother in a traditional village, become threatened. The answer to the question is a simple as it is demanding: I have to be part of the future of Romanian crafts. To document them, understand them, and incorporate them in my art. For this purpose, I undertake an investigative research trip. The text presents my findings about the crafts, and about the people working to document and preserve the traditions. The research trip is also presented in the movie “Six days in Romania”, which I include as an appendix to the essay. Over the course of two years, several short-term art projects have been completed within the master program. They are presented in the form of an interview with myself. Looking back at these projects, they become explained as necessary steps in preparation for the final piece, a viewpoint very different from the utter confusion that was the dominating feeling of at least the first year of the course. The interview tries to give insight into the non-linear process that is the creative work. Finally, in a poetic description of the final piece, I let my art speak for itself in a very literal way. In giving voice to the piece, I try to access truths hidden even to myself, in an effort to be as transparent as possible about the value of my efforts.

More students at college and universities are taking advantage of the opportunity to study abroad. During their time overseas, many will confront culture shock. Upon their return, they may also encounter a difficult transition, resulting in reverse culture shock. This study explores the various long term effects of reverse culture shock among study abroad alumni at a land grant institution. The alumni in this sample represent a variety of study abroad programs as well as experiences with reentry shock. By contributing further evidence regarding the influence of reverse culture shock over an extended period, it can provide incentive for universities to increase the level of reentry support for their students. Furthermore, by assisting students through the challenges of their reentry, educators can enhance the level of cultural learning from the experience as well as contribute to the students’ personal development.

The overall objective of the current proposal is to develop procedures to improve the pregnancy rate achieved following transfer of fresh or cryopreserved embryos produced in the laboratory into heat-stress recipients. The overall hypothesis is that pregnancy rate in heat-stressed lactating cows can be improved by use of embryo transfer and that additional gains in pregnancy rate can be achieved through development of procedures to cryopreserve embryos, select embryos most likely to establish and maintain pregnancy after transfer, and to enhance embryo competence for post-transfer survival through manipulation of culture conditions. The original specific objectives were to 1) optimize procedures for cryopreservation (Israel/US), 2) develop procedures for identifying embryos with the greatest potential for development and survival using the remote monitoring system called EmbryoGuard (Israel), 3) perform field trials to test the efficacy of cryopreservation and the EmbryoGuard selection system for improving pregnancy rates in heat-stressed, lactating cows (US/Israel), 4) test whether selection of fresh or frozen-thawed blastocysts based on measurement of group II caspase activity is an effective means of increasing survival after cryopreservation and post-transfer pregnancy rate (US), and 5) identify genes in blastocysts induced by insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) (US). In addition to these objectives, additional work was carried out to determine additional cellular determinants of embryonic resistance to heat shock. There were several major achievements. Results of one experiment indicated that survival of embryos to freezing could be improved by treating embryos with cytochalasin B to disrupt the cytoskeleton. An additional improvement in the efficacy of embryo transfer for achieving pregnancy in heat-stressed cows follows from the finding that IGF-1 can improve post-transfer survival of in vitro produced embryos in the summer but not winter. Expression of several genes in the blastocyst was regulated by IGF-1 including IGF binding protein-3, desmocollin II, Na/K ATPase, Bax, heat shock protein 70 and IGF-1 receptor. These genes are likely candidates 1) for developing assays for selection of embryos for transfer and 2) as marker genes for improving culture conditions for embryo production. The fact that IGF-1 improved survival of embryos in heat-stressed recipients only is consistent with the hypothesis that IGF-1 confers cellular thermotolerance to bovine embryos. Other experiments confirmed this action of IGF-1. One action of IGF-1, the ability to block heat-shock induced apoptosis, was shown to be mediated through activation of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase pathway. Other cellular determinants of resistance of embryos to elevated temperature were identified including redox status of the embryo and the ceramide signaling pathway. Developmental changes in embryonic apoptosis responses in response to heat shock were described and found to include alterations in the capacity of the embryo to undergo caspase-9 and caspase-3 activation as well as events downstream from caspase-3 activation. With the exception of IGF-1, other possible treatments to improve pregnancy rate to embryo transfer were not effective including selection of embryos for caspase activity, treatment of recipients with GnRH.and bilateral transfer of twin embryos. In conclusion, accomplishments achieved during the grant period have resulted in methods for improving post-transfer survival of in vitro produced embryos transferred into heat-stressed cows and have lead to additional avenues for research to increase embryo resistance to elevated temperature and improve survival to cryopreservation. In addition, embryo transfer of vitrified IVF embryos increased significantly the pregnancy rate in repeated breeder cows.

The impacts of explosive weapons use in populated areas are much wider and longer lasting than the shock waves of the explosive blast. The use of explosive weapons sets in motion a series of complex knock-on effects that spread out over time and space in urban ecosystems, with negative consequences for civilian well-being and the environment in which people live. These “reverberating effects” manifest across a wide range of interlinked sectors, including urban infrastructure, public health, education, culture and heritage, food security, economic prospects, and adverse environmental impacts. The purpose of this research framework is to offer indicators to document knock-on effects and potentially inform and influence the policy and practice of parties to conflict. This document aims to shed light on the generalized pattern of harm from the use of explosive weapons in populated areas (EWIPA). By using a standardized set of indicators, the data generated can be leveraged to build a comparable evidence base reflecting the consequences to civilian well-being of the use of EWIPA and to inform high-level decision-making on policy and practice.

The overall goal was to identify survival factors that can improve pregnancy success following insemination or embryo transfer in lactating dairy cows exposed to heat stress. First, we demonstrated that oocytes are actually damaged by elevated temperature in the summer. Then we tested two thermoprotective molecules for their effect on oocyte damage caused by heat shock. One molecule, ceramide was not thermoprptective. Another, insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF) reduced the effects of heat shock on oocyte apoptosis and oocyte cleavage when added during maturation. We also used lactating cows exposed to heat stress to determine whether bovine somatotropin (bST), which increases IGF1 levels in vivo, would improve fertility in summer. Cows treated with bST received a single injection at 3 days before insemination. Controls received no additional treatment. Treatment with bST did not significantly increase the proportion of inseminated cows diagnosed pregnant although it was numerically greater for the bST group (24.2% vs 17.8%, 124–132 cows per group). There was a tendency (p =0.10) for a smaller percent of control cows to have high plasma progesterone concentrations (≥ 1 ng/ml) at Day 7 after insemination than for bST-treated cows (72.6 vs 81.1%). When only cows that were successfully synchronized were considered, the magnitude of the absolute difference in the percentage of inseminated cows that were diagnosed pregnant between bST and control cows was reduced (24.8 vs 22.4% pregnant for bST and control). Results failed to indicate a beneficial effect of bST treatment on fertility of lactating dairy cows. In another experiment, we found a tendency for addition of IGF1 to embryo culture medium to improve embryonic survival after embryo transfer when the experiment was done during heat stress but not when the experiment was done in the absence of heat stress. Another molecule tested, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF; also called colony-stimulating factor-2), improved embryonic survival in the absence of heat stress. We also examined whether heat shock affects the sperm cell. There was no effect of heat shock on sperm apoptosis (programmed cell death) or on sperm fertilizing ability. Therefore, effects of heat shock on sperm function after ejaculation if minimal. However, there were seasonal changes in sperm characteristics that indicates that some of the decrease in dairy cow fertility during the summer in Israel is due to using semen of inferior quality. Semen was collected from five representative bulls throughout the summer (August and September) and winter (December and January). There were seasonal differences in ion concentration in seminal plasma and in the mRNA for various ion channels known to be involved in acrosome reactions. Furthermore, the proportion of sperm cells with damaged acrosomes was higher in post-thaw semen collected in the summer than in its counterpart collected in winter (54.2 ± 3.5% vs. 51.4 ± 1.9%, respectively; P < 0.08Further examination is required to determine whether such alterations are involved in the low summer fertility of dairy cows.

Targeting social assistance in situations of protracted conflict, protracted displacement, or recurrent climate shock, so that it reaches those most in need rapidly, effectively and without doing further harm, has historically been one of the most complex technical and political challenges for development and humanitarian programmes. Trade-offs involving costs beyond the economic – such as risks of exclusion and concerns over protection – raise questions about who to target, how to target and whether to target at all (i.e. through universal coverage or lotteries) would lead to better impacts in contexts where systems of state provision are often damaged or non-existent. The multiplicity of actors involved in delivering social assistance in crisis situations, with their own targeting cultures and mandates, can result in uncoordinated patchy and limited assistance, often overlooking equity concerns. Drawing on a range of literature, in this paper we examine the key considerations and dilemmas for targeting social assistance in protracted crises, including shock contexts, targeting methods, exclusion and protection risks, national and international actors’ politics, and technologies. Our purpose is to draw out lessons to better inform targeting of future social assistance programming across the humanitarian-development nexus.

Whether it adopts a right- or left-wing ideology or it is embraced as a belief or a set of ideals, and no matter the strategy or tactics, populism, in the final analysis, is a way of seizing power, and differences between the different strands carry significant repercussions. Many diverse economic, political, and cultural factors have been put forward to explain the rise of populism. One leader who has drawn increasing attention on the crest of the most recent wave of populism is Turkey’s incumbent president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. After a period of progressive and democratic leadership through to 2007, Erdoğan’s fundamental beliefs and personality surfaced, and the entire process was reversed, with devastating consequences for Turkey. This article argues that Erdoğan’s Islamist–nationalist populism has been one of the primary triggers of Turkey’s current political and economic meltdown. Moreover, his populist rhetoric has weakened Turkey’s already fragile autonomous institutions and paved the way for reform reversals and incoherent economic policy. Taken together, Erdoğanism has brought a woeful deterioration in macroeconomic indicators, including rampant inflation, mounting national debt, massive unemployment, rising poverty, and a profound currency shock.

Banco de la República is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2023. This is a very significant anniversary and one that provides an opportunity to highlight the contribution the Bank has made to the country’s development. Its track record as guarantor of monetary stability has established it as the one independent state institution that generates the greatest confidence among Colombians due to its transparency, management capabilities, and effective compliance with the central banking and cultural responsibilities entrusted to it by the Constitution and the Law. On a date as important as this, the Board of Directors of Banco de la República (BDBR) pays tribute to the generations of governors and officers whose commitment and dedication have contributed to the growth of this institution.1 Banco de la República’s mandate was confirmed in the National Constitutional Assembly of 1991 where the citizens had the opportunity to elect the seventy people who would have the task of drafting a new constitution. The leaders of the three political movements with the most votes were elected as chairs to the Assembly, and this tripartite presidency reflected the plurality and the need for consensus among the different political groups to move the reform forward. Among the issues considered, the National Constitutional Assembly gave special importance to monetary stability. That is why they decided to include central banking and to provide Banco de la República with the necessary autonomy to use the instruments for which they are responsible without interference from other authorities. The constituent members understood that ensuring price stability is a state duty and that the entity responsible for this task must be enshrined in the Constitution and have the technical capability and institutional autonomy necessary to adopt the decisions they deem appropriate to achieve this fundamental objective in coordination with the general economic policy. In particular, Article 373 established that “the State, through Banco de la República, shall ensure the maintenance of the purchasing power of the currency,” a provision that coincided with the central banking system adopted by countries that have been successful in controlling inflation. In 1999, in Ruling 481, the Constitutional Court stated that “the duty to maintain the purchasing power of the currency applies to not only the monetary, credit, and exchange authority, i.e., the Board of Banco de la República, but also those who have responsibilities in the formulation and implementation of the general economic policy of the country” and that “the basic constitutional purpose of Banco de la República is the protection of a sound currency. However, this authority must take the other economic objectives of state intervention such as full employment into consideration in their decisions since these functions must be coordinated with the general economic policy.” The reforms to Banco de la República agreed upon in the Constitutional Assembly of 1991 and in Act 31/1992 can be summarized in the following aspects: i) the Bank was assigned a specific mandate: to maintain the purchasing power of the currency in coordination with the general economic policy; ii) the BDBR was designatedas the monetary, foreign exchange, and credit authority; iii) the Bank and its Board of Directors were granted a significant degree of independence from the government; iv) the Bank was prohibited from granting credit to the private sector except in the case of the financial sector; v) established that in order to grant credit to the government, the unanimous vote of its Board of Directors was required except in the case of open market transactions; vi) determined that the legislature may, in no case, order credit quotas in favor of the State or individuals; vii) Congress was appointed, on behalf of society, as the main addressee of the Bank’s reporting exercise; and viii) the responsibility for inspection, surveillance, and control over Banco de la República was delegated to the President of the Republic. The members of the National Constitutional Assembly clearly understood that the benefits of low and stable inflation extend to the whole of society and contribute mto the smooth functioning of the economic system. Among the most important of these is that low inflation promotes the efficient use of productive resources by allowing relative prices to better guide the allocation of resources since this promotes economic growth and increases the welfare of the population. Likewise, low inflation reduces uncertainty about the expected return on investment and future asset prices. This increases the confidence of economic agents, facilitates long-term financing, and stimulates investment. Since the low-income population is unable to protect itself from inflation by diversifying its assets, and a high proportion of its income is concentrated in the purchase of food and other basic goods that are generally the most affected by inflationary shocks, low inflation avoids arbitrary redistribution of income and wealth.2 Moreover, low inflation facilitates wage negotiations, creates a good labor climate, and reduces the volatility of employment levels. Finally, low inflation helps to make the tax system more transparent and equitable by avoiding the distortions that inflation introduces into the value of assets and income that make up the tax base. From the monetary authority’s point of view, one of the most relevant benefits of low inflation is the credibility that economic agents acquire in inflation targeting, which turns it into an effective nominal anchor on price levels. Upon receiving its mandate, and using its autonomy, Banco de la República began to announce specific annual inflation targets as of 1992. Although the proposed inflation targets were not met precisely during this first stage, a downward trend in inflation was achieved that took it from 32.4% in 1990 to 16.7% in 1998. At that time, the exchange rate was kept within a band. This limited the effectiveness of monetary policy, which simultaneously sought to meet an inflation target and an exchange rate target. The Asian crisis spread to emerging economies and significantly affected the Colombian economy. The exchange rate came under strong pressure to depreciate as access to foreign financing was cut off under conditions of a high foreign imbalance. This, together with the lack of exchange rate flexibility, prevented a countercyclical monetary policy and led to a 4.2% contraction in GDP that year. In this context of economic slowdown, annual inflation fell to 9.2% at the end of 1999, thus falling below the 15% target set for that year. This episode fully revealed how costly it could be, in terms of economic activity, to have inflation and exchange rate targets simultaneously. Towards the end of 1999, Banco de la República announced the adoption of a new monetary policy regime called the Inflation Targeting Plan. This regime, known internationally as ‘Inflation Targeting,’ has been gaining increasing acceptance in developed countries, having been adopted in 1991 by New Zealand, Canada, and England, among others, and has achieved significant advances in the management of inflation without incurring costs in terms of economic activity. In Latin America, Brazil and Chile also adopted it in 1999. In the case of Colombia, the last remaining requirement to be fulfilled in order to adopt said policy was exchange rate flexibility. This was realized around September 1999, when the BDBR decided to abandon the exchange-rate bands to allow the exchange rate to be freely determined in the market.Consistent with the constitutional mandate, the fundamental objective of this new policy approach was “the achievement of an inflation target that contributes to maintaining output growth around its potential.”3 This potential capacity was understood as the GDP growth that the economy can obtain if it fully utilizes its productive resources. To meet this objective, monetary policy must of necessity play a countercyclical role in the economy. This is because when economic activity is below its potential and there are idle resources, the monetary authority can reduce the interest rate in the absence of inflationary pressure to stimulate the economy and, when output exceeds its potential capacity, raise it. This policy principle, which is immersed in the models for guiding the monetary policy stance, makes the following two objectives fully compatible in the medium term: meeting the inflation target and achieving a level of economic activity that is consistent with its productive capacity. To achieve this purpose, the inflation targeting system uses the money market interest rate (at which the central bank supplies primary liquidity to commercial banks) as the primary policy instrument. This replaced the quantity of money as an intermediate monetary policy target that Banco de la República, like several other central banks, had used for a long time. In the case of Colombia, the objective of the new monetary policy approach implied, in practical terms, that the recovery of the economy after the 1999 contraction should be achieved while complying with the decreasing inflation targets established by the BDBR. The accomplishment of this purpose was remarkable. In the first half of the first decade of the 2000s, economic activity recovered significantly and reached a growth rate of 6.8% in 2006. Meanwhile, inflation gradually declined in line with inflation targets. That was how the inflation rate went from 9.2% in 1999 to 4.5% in 2006, thus meeting the inflation target established for that year while GDP reached its potential level. After this balance was achieved in 2006, inflation rebounded to 5.7% in 2007, above the 4.0% target for that year due to the fact that the 7.5% GDP growth exceeded the potential capacity of the economy.4 After proving the effectiveness of the inflation targeting system in its first years of operation, this policy regime continued to consolidate as the BDBR and the technical staff gained experience in its management and state-of-the-art economic models were incorporated to diagnose the present and future state of the economy and to assess the persistence of inflation deviations and expectations with respect to the inflation target. Beginning in 2010, the BDBR established the long-term 3.0% annual inflation target, which remains in effect today. Lower inflation has contributed to making the macroeconomic environment more stable, and this has favored sustained economic growth, financial stability, capital market development, and the functioning of payment systems. As a result, reductions in the inflationary risk premia and lower TES and credit interest rates were achieved. At the same time, the duration of public domestic debt increased significantly going from 2.27 years in December 2002 to 5.86 years in December 2022, and financial deepening, measured as the level of the portfolio as a percentage of GDP, went from around 20% in the mid-1990s to values above 45% in recent years in a healthy context for credit institutions.Having been granted autonomy by the Constitution to fulfill the mandate of preserving the purchasing power of the currency, the tangible achievements made by Banco de la República in managing inflation together with the significant benefits derived from the process of bringing inflation to its long-term target, make the BDBR’s current challenge to return inflation to the 3.0% target even more demanding and pressing. As is well known, starting in 2021, and especially in 2022, inflation in Colombia once again became a serious economic problem with high welfare costs. The inflationary phenomenon has not been exclusive to Colombia and many other developed and emerging countries have seen their inflation rates move away from the targets proposed by their central banks.5 The reasons for this phenomenon have been analyzed in recent Reports to Congress, and this new edition delves deeper into the subject with updated information. The solid institutional and technical base that supports the inflation targeting approach under which the monetary policy strategy operates gives the BDBR the necessary elements to face this difficult challenge with confidence. In this regard, the BDBR reiterated its commitment to the 3.0% inflation target in its November 25 communiqué and expects it to be reached by the end of 2024.6 Monetary policy will continue to focus on meeting this objective while ensuring the sustainability of economic activity, as mandated by the Constitution. Analyst surveys done in March showed a significant increase (from 32.3% in January to 48.5% in March) in the percentage of responses placing inflation expectations two years or more ahead in a range between 3.0% and 4.0%. This is a clear indication of the recovery of credibility in the medium-term inflation target and is consistent with the BDBR’s announcement made in November 2022. The moderation of the upward trend in inflation seen in January, and especially in February, will help to reinforce this revision of inflation expectations and will help to meet the proposed targets. After reaching 5.6% at the end of 2021, inflation maintained an upward trend throughout 2022 due to inflationary pressures from both external sources, associated with the aftermath of the pandemic and the consequences of the war in Ukraine, and domestic sources, resulting from: strengthening of local demand; price indexation processes stimulated by the increase in inflation expectations; the impact on food production caused by the mid-2021 strike; and the pass-through of depreciation to prices. The 10% increase in the minimum wage in 2021 and the 16% increase in 2022, both of which exceeded the actual inflation and the increase in productivity, accentuated the indexation processes by establishing a high nominal adjustment benchmark. Thus, total inflation went to 13.1% by the end of 2022. The annual change in food prices, which went from 17.2% to 27.8% between those two years, was the most influential factor in the surge in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Another segment that contributed significantly to price increases was regulated products, which saw the annual change go from 7.1% in December 2021 to 11.8% by the end of 2022. The measure of core inflation excluding food and regulated items, in turn, went from 2.5% to 9.5% between the end of 2021 and the end of 2022. The substantial increase in core inflation shows that inflationary pressure has spread to most of the items in the household basket, which is characteristic of inflationary processes with generalized price indexation as is the case in Colombia. Monetary policy began to react early to this inflationary pressure. Thus, starting with its September 2021 session, the BDBR began a progressive change in the monetary policy stance moving away from the historical low of a 1.75% policy rate that had intended to stimulate the recovery of the economy. This adjustment process continued without interruption throughout 2022 and into the beginning of 2023 when the monetary policy rate reached 12.75% last January, thus accumulating an increase of 11 percentage points (pp). The public and the markets have been surprised that inflation continued to rise despite significant interest rate increases. However, as the BDBR has explained in its various communiqués, monetary policy works with a lag. Just as in 2022 economic activity recovered to a level above the pre-pandemic level, driven, along with other factors, by the monetary stimulus granted during the pandemic period and subsequent months, so too the effects of the current restrictive monetary policy will gradually take effect. This will allow us to expect the inflation rate to converge to 3.0% by the end of 2024 as is the BDBR’s purpose.Inflation results for January and February of this year showed declining marginal increases (13 bp and 3 bp respectively) compared to the change seen in December (59 bp). This suggests that a turning point in the inflation trend is approaching. In other Latin American countries such as Chile, Brazil, Perú, and Mexico, inflation has peaked and has begun to decline slowly, albeit with some ups and downs. It is to be expected that a similar process will take place in Colombia in the coming months. The expected decline in inflation in 2023 will be due, along with other factors, to lower cost pressure from abroad as a result of the gradual normalization of supply chains, the overcoming of supply shocks caused by the weather, and road blockades in previous years. This will be reflected in lower adjustments in food prices, as has already been seen in the first two months of the year and, of course, the lagged effect of monetary policy. The process of inflation convergence to the target will be gradual and will extend beyond 2023. This process will be facilitated if devaluation pressure is reversed. To this end, it is essential to continue consolidating fiscal sustainability and avoid messages on different public policy fronts that generate uncertainty and distrust. 1 This Report to Congress includes Box 1, which summarizes the trajectory of Banco de la República over the past 100 years. In addition, under the Bank’s auspices, several books that delve into various aspects of the history of this institution have been published in recent years. See, for example: Historia del Banco de la República 1923-2015; Tres banqueros centrales; Junta Directiva del Banco de la República: grandes episodios en 30 años de historia; Banco de la República: 90 años de la banca central en Colombia. 2 This is why lower inflation has been reflected in a reduction of income inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient that went from 58.7 in 1998 to 51.3 in the year prior to the pandemic. 3 See Gómez Javier, Uribe José Darío, Vargas Hernando (2002). “The Implementation of Inflation Targeting in Colombia”. Borradores de Economía, No. 202, March, available at: https://repositorio.banrep.gov.co/handle/20.500.12134/5220 4 See López-Enciso Enrique A.; Vargas-Herrera Hernando and Rodríguez-Niño Norberto (2016). “The inflation targeting strategy in Colombia. An historical view.” Borradores de Economía, No. 952. https://repositorio.banrep.gov.co/handle/20.500.12134/6263 5 According to the IMF, the percentage change in consumer prices between 2021 and 2022 went from 3.1% to 7.3% for advanced economies, and from 5.9% to 9.9% for emerging market and developing economies. 6 https://www.banrep.gov.co/es/noticias/junta-directiva-banco-republica-reitera-meta-inflacion-3