Academic literature on the topic 'Rabbinical Assembly of America'

Michael J. Broyde, Shari’a Tribunals, Rabbinical Courts, and Chris-tian Panels: Religious Arbitration in America and the West, Oxford University Press, 2017. Str. 312, ISBN 978 0 19064 028 6. The Problem of Religious Diversity: European Challenges, Asian Approaches, By Anna Triandafyllidou & Tariq Modood (eds.), Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017. Str. 352, ISBN 978 1 47441 909 3.

The article reveals the current situation around religious courts, arbitrations and mediation institutions in the states of North America, analyzes their structure, main functions and activities. Catholic and Orthodox church courts, courts and mediation institutions in Protestant churches and denominations, rabbinical and Sharia courts, conflict resolution bodies of Buddhists, Hindus, Mormons, Scientologists are active in the United States. Generally, US authorities do not interfere in their activities if there are no violations of the rights and freedoms of citizens, but sometimes at the state level (Arizona, Wyoming, Indiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas) the use of religious norms in arbitration courts is prohibited. A similar situation has occurred in Canada, where official religious courts operate legally, but in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec the activity of religious courts in the field of family relations was limited (in many respects due to fears of the formation of a parallel “Sharia justice”) The opinions of North American researchers on this issue are divided: some consider the activities of religious courts as a violation of the principle of secularism and think it necessary to ban their activities, others regard them as the realization of religious freedoms and advocate their preservation in the legislative framework...

Dispute resolution practices adopted by religious associations remain relevant under the conditions of contemporary society and a secular state. There are Christian church courts, mediation and arbitration institutions, rabbinical tribunals, Sharia councils, disciplinary and conciliatory bodies of other religious communities in Europe and North America. Ecclesiastical and Jewish courts, qadis and Sharia departments in Muftiates function in the Russian Federation. Applying the questionnaire method, the authors analyzed the demand for religious institutions engaged in disputes resolution with Muslims and Christians (predominantly Orthodox ones) in Tatarstan taking into account the peculiarities of the normative systems of Islam and Christianity, and the structure of Muslim and Orthodox associations. The survey revealed the following: 1) more often than Christians Muslims turn to religious institutions for settling disputes; 2) more often than Christians Muslims resort to aforementioned institutions to consider marriage, family, inheritance and business cases; 3) experts in Sharia and authoritative believers play an important role in resolving conflicts in Muslim society along with the clergy. That is not typical for Christians, who mostly limit themselves to appealing to clergymen. The demand for the dispute resolution institutions among Muslims is much higher than among Christians. Responses of Christians are in many respects close to the answers of non-religious respondents. This suggests that in the future, Muslim associations, imams and Sharia ex-perts will retain a greater regulatory potential than Christian associations.

Species diversity varies dramatically across the surface of the Earth. A key step in the accumulation of species diversity is the ability of species to coexist in biological communities. Thus, identifying the mechanisms underlying community assembly is a major challenge for ecologists seeking to explain patterns in species diversity and composition. Recently some consensus has been reached on the set of processes that influence community assembly: speciation, demographic stochasticity, niche-based fitness trade-offs among species and dispersal. However, it is unclear how the importance of a particular process changes with spatial scale, which interactions exist among processes at large spatial scales and the extent to which niche-based resource partitioning among species explains differences in diversity among communities. Neotropical birds offer an ideal opportunity to address these uncertainties because of their high diversity and the existence of detailed information on their evolutionary history and ecology. In this thesis, I first use trait and phylogenetic metrics of community structure to show that both habitat filtering and interspecific competition shape community composition at the scale of individual bird territories (~1-2 ha). Second, I use simulations of community assembly to show that trait-based metrics of community structure outperform phylogenetic metrics for detecting niche-based community assembly, and that both sets of metrics often have low power when multiple processes influence community composition. Third, taking a trait-based, species-level approach, I show that both habitat filtering and interspecific competition influence species occurrence at regional scales (~75000 km²), and interact with dispersal ability so that their effect on species occurrence is increased for species with greater dispersal ability. Finally, using a combination of trait- and isotope-based methods to quantify resource partitioning, I show that species' niche widths do not change and niche overlap is reduced at high compared to low species richness. Taken together, these results suggest that both habitat filtering and interspecific competition (i.e. niche-based processes) influence community assembly from local to regional scales. However, at least at regional scales, the degree to which these processes are important for determining the occurrence of any given species depends on that species's dispersal ability. They also suggest, based on niche-based interspecific competition influencing community composition, that differences in species richness among communities are in part explained by differences among sites in the breadth of available niche space, not by increased ecological specialisation or niche overlap.

The relative contributions of biome history and geological setting to historical assembly of species richness in biodiversity hotspots remain poorly understood. The tropical Andes is one of the world’s top biodiversity hotspots, and with its diverse biomes and the relatively recent but dramatic uplift, the Andes provides an ideal study system to address these questions. To gain insights into the historical species assembly of the tropical Andes, this study focuses on investigating patterns of plant species diversification in the Andean seasonally dry tropical forest (SDTF) biome. Three plant genera are used as study groups: Amicia (Leguminosae, Papilionoideae), Tecoma (Bignoniaceae), and Mimosa (Leguminosae, Mimosoideae). Species limits are re-evaluated to enable dense sampling of species and intraspecific diversity for phylogeny reconstruction for each group. Time-calibrated phylogenies for Amicia and Mimosa are presented and used to determine patterns of species diversification in time and space. For Tecoma, incongruence between nuclear and chloroplast gene trees precludes straightforward estimation of a species tree and this incongruence is attributed to possible reticulation caused by hybridization. Divergence time estimates and patterns of diversification for Amicia and Mimosa are compared with other Andean SDTF groups (Cyathostegia, Coursetia, Poissonia; Leguminosae) using isolation by distance and phylogenetic geographic structure analyses. Consistently deep divergences between sister species and high geographic structure across all five groups suggest that Andean SDTF lineages have persisted over the past 10 million years (My) with high endemism driven by dispersal limitation, caused by geographic isolation, following the most recent episode of rapid mountain uplift 5-10 My ago. This prolonged stasis of the Andean SDTF biome is in line with Miocene fossil and paleoclimate evidence. Finally, wider analyses of the contrasting evolutionary timescales of older SDTF and more recent high-altitude grassland diversity suggest that the exceptional plant species diversity in the Andes is the outcome of highly heterogeneous evolutionary histories reflecting the physiographical heterogeneity of the Andean biodiversity hotspot.

The dark kangaroo mouse, Microdipodops megacephalus, is a sensitive species in the Great Basin Desert. This thesis explores the structure of desert rodent communities of the Great Basin to better understand M. megacephalus' place in the community and the conditions that promote large and stable populations. To determine community structure, I used nestedness analysis to evaluate 99 communities of nocturnal granivorous rodents. I found that the community structure was non-random, indicating the existence of assembly rules and ecological constraints. I also found that M. megacephalus was the second most vulnerable species in the community. To explore the correlation between species diversity and relative abundance, I performed regression analyses on M. megacephalus and five commonly co-occurring species of the nocturnal granivore guild: Perognathus longimembris (little pocket mouse), Perognathus parvus (Great Basin pocket mouse), Dipodomys ordii (Ord's kangaroo rat), Dipodomys microps (chisel-toothed kangaroo rat), and Peromyscus maniculatus (deer mouse). Results showed a positive correlation between rodent species diversity and relative abundance for M. megacephalus, P. longimembris, P. parvus, and D. microps, and a negative correlation for D. ordii and P. maniculatus. To further understand community composition, I ran interspecific association analyses based on presence-absence data for the six species using chi-square to determine strength of interspecific associations. I found positive interspecific associations between M. megacephalus and P. parvus, between P. longimembris and P. parvus, between P. longimembris and D. microps, and between D. microps and P. maniculatus, and a negative association between P. longimembris and P. maniculatus. A species cluster dendogram with respect to sites in common further supports the interspecific association results. A site cluster dendogram with respect to species abundances implies that dune habitat promotes diversity but not uniformity. All results indicate that M. megacephalus is more abundant and stable at sites with high species richness. The results also provide evidence for the existence of assembly rules, competition, and niche partitioning in desert rodent communities.

This thesis examines the effect regionalism had upon North Carolina and Virginia during the 1847-1862 legislative battles over the Danville, Virginia, to Greensboro, North Carolina, railroad connection. The first chapter examines the rivalry between eastern and western North Carolina for internal improvement legislation, namely westerners’ wish to connect with Virginia and easterners’ desire to remain economically relevant. The second chapter investigates the Tidewater region of Virginia and its battle against the Southside to create a rail connection with North Carolina. The third chapter examines the legislation for the Danville Connection during the American Civil War in the Virginia, North Carolina, and Confederate legislatures. Through an examination of voting patterns and public opinion, this thesis finds that, despite Confederate President Jefferson Davis’s designation of the Danville connection as a military necessity, regionalism overcame Confederate nationalism during this instance.

Thesis (Ph.D)--City Planning, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009.
Committee Chair: French, Steven P.; Committee Member: Drummond, William; Committee Member: Goodno, Barry; Committee Member: McCarthy, Patrick; Committee Member: Yang, Jiawen. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

The United States imposed the longest lasting sanction regime on Cuba in 1960 as a result of strained relations in recent years. Each US administration modified form of the sanctions regime, depending on the attitude toward the Cuban issue. General Assembly, the highest authority of the UN, adopts not legally binding but politically significant resolutions. Resolution condemning US sanctions regime has been adopted annually since 1992. Discussion on changes of the sanction regime in the General Assembly is a sign of reflection on current events and unrigid process of resolutions adoption. The main purpose is to determine whether the changes of the sanction regime were mentioned in the discussions on the adoption of the resolutions. The result of the analysis shows the reflection of the events in the speeches of ambassadors. The amount of mentioned events in speeches depends whether they were positive or negative step toward easing the embargo, and also how important the event was.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
Phormia regina (Meigen), commonly known as the black blow fly is a dipteran that belongs to the family Calliphoridae. Calliphorids play an important role in various research fields including ecology, medical studies, veterinary and forensic sciences. P. regina, a non-model organism, is one of the most common forensically relevant insects in North America and is typically used to assist in estimating postmortem intervals (PMI). To better understand the roles P. regina plays in the numerous research fields, we re-constructed its genome using next generation sequencing technologies. The focus was on generating a reference genome through de novo assembly of high-throughput short read sequences. Following assembly, genetic markers were identified in the form of microsatellites and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to aid in future population genetic surveys of P. regina. A total 530 million 100 bp paired-end reads were obtained from five pooled male and female P. regina flies using the Illumina HiSeq2000 sequencing platform. A 524 Mbp draft genome was assembled using both sexes with 11,037 predicted genes. The draft reference genome assembled from this study provides an important resource for investigating the genetic diversity that exists between and among blow fly species; and empowers the understanding of their genetic basis in terms of adaptations, population structure and evolution. The genomic tools will facilitate the analysis of genome-wide studies using modern genomic techniques to boost a refined understanding of the evolutionary processes underlying genomic evolution between blow flies and other insect species.

AbstractIn the year 1954 Pawsey was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society and we provide some details on the nomination process that led to his election. Later that year Pawsey travelled to Europe and North America, leading the Australian delegation to the URSI General assembly in The Hague and re-establishing his International contacts.

AbstractCold-formed steel structures have been widely applied in structural buildings with advantages in manufacturing, transportation and assembly. Holes can be pre-punched in the sectional members to allow technical pipes to go throughout such as electricity, water or ventilation. This affects the capacities of these such members which have been considered in the design standards in America or Australia/New Zealand. The paper, therefore, investigates the effects of web holes on the capacities of cold-formed steel channel members under compression or bending. Their capacities can be determined according to the American Specification AISI S100-16. The investigated results are the base for analysing the effects of web hole dimensions on the behaviors and capacities of cold-formed steel channel members. It was found that the capacity reductions were obtained for compressive members with the increase in hole sizes, but the flexural capacities were noticeable increase with the increase in the hole heights.

Abstract Robert Gordis (1908-1992) was born in New York. He received his rabbinical ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1932. A year earlier, in 1931, he had already begun to serve as the rabbi of Temple Beth El in Far Rockaway, New York, and he served in this position until 1968. In addition, a lifelong student of the Hebrew Bible, he began to teach biblical studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1940, and then taught at Columbia University beginning in 1948, at Union Theological Seminary beginning in 1960, and finally, at Temple University from 1967 to 1974. He also served as editor of the influential journal Judaism, as the president of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly, as president of the Synagogue Council of America, and as a consultant to the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions. His main area of scholarly expertise was the so-called wisdom literature of the Bible, e.g., Ecclesiastes and Job, and he wrote valuable studies of both of these biblical books. In addition, he wrote several books on Jewish theology, intended for the wider Jewish community as well as for scholars, that established his reputation as a theologian.

This chapter assesses the author's proposal of a resolution about messianism to the Rabbinical Council of America. The proposal reads as follows: ‘In light of disturbing developments which have arisen following the passing of the Lubavitcher Rebbe zt''l, the Rabbinical Council of America declares that there is no place in Orthodox Judaism for the belief that Mashiach ben David (Messiah son of David) will begin his Messianic mission only to experience death, burial and resurrection before completing it’. The RCA resolution evoked substantial coverage in the Jewish media. It was not formulated as an attack against Lubavitch and addressed the messianist belief in a mild language. Nevertheless, some Lubavitch hasidim levelled strong attacks against the RCA and even stronger attacks against the author.

The contributions included in this volume reflect both the challenges and opportunities of an incipient process of reflection and dialogue between indigenous peoples, governments and development agencies on a subject of vital importance for the approximately 40 million indigenous people of the hemisphere. In addition to the critical issues of poverty reduction, self-development, indigenous rights and secured access to land and natural resources, a common thread throughout this volume is the close interrelationship between sound and sustainable socioeconomic development and the preservation and strengthening of cultural identity. This volume contains the English translation of a selection of essays and presentations made during the International Seminar on Indigenous Development: Poverty, Democracy and Sustainability, organized on the occasion of the First General Assembly of the Fund for the Development of the Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean (Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, May 22 and 23, 1995).

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