Chile: Economic activity growth slows year on year and month on month in January
Latest reading: Economic activity grew 2.5% compared to the same month a year earlier in January, which was a deterioration from December’s 6.6% increase. The softening was driven by weaker readings in the mining and non-mining sectors.
On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, economic activity rose at a more moderate pace of 0.4% in January (December: +0.9% mom). Meanwhile, annual average growth of economic activity was 2.5% in January, matching December’s figure.
Panelist insight: Goldman Sachs Sergio Armella said:
“All in all, the real GDP recovery observed during the fourth quarter extended in January. Non-mining GDP was particularly firm and has expanded in all the last four months (+0.7% mom sa average). We note, however, that the food industry (fruit in particular) played an important role through the production chain in December and January (commerce and manufacturing). Over the next months, we expect non-mining activity to continue on a positive, albeit more moderate, growth path and for the output gap to remain around zero.”