Chile: Business confidence eases in March
Business confidence came in at 40.6 in March, down from February’s 42.1. As such, the index remained entrenched below the 50-point threshold, signaling sustained pessimism among businesses.
March’s fall was driven by worse sentiment in the mining sector. In contrast, sentiment in the construction, industrial and retail sectors picked up. All sectors except mining were in pessimistic territory. Taken together, depressed business sentiment readings in Q1 bode poorly for fixed investment in the quarter; indeed, our analysts forecast a year-on-year contraction in fixed investment in Q1.