Chile: Business confidence rises to over one-year high in October
Business confidence came in at 43.9 in October, up from September’s 43.4. October’s result marked the best reading since May 2022. However, the index remained entrenched below the 50-point threshold, indicating that businesses were pessimistic and boding poorly for fixed investment.
October’s reading was driven by an improvement in sentiment in the construction and mining sectors, which more than offset softer sentiment in the retail and industrial sectors.
Fixed investment is forecast to decline over 2023 as a whole, weighed on by downbeat business sentiment. Concerns over the global economic outlook, high domestic interest rates, the lack of clarity regarding the new constitution and the government’s push to raise taxes have likely hurt sentiment this year.