Chile: Economic activity improves in March
In March, the IMACEC index picked up on the heels of February’s slowdown, which saw the lowest reading since June 2017. Economic activity rose 1.9% year-on-year, accelerating from the 1.4% expansion registered in the previous month.
The print chiefly reflected a softer contraction of the mining economy, after February’s adverse weather conditions weighed on production (March: -2.1% year-on-year; February: -7.8% yoy). Meanwhile, the non-mining economy decelerated a notch, from 2.4% in February to 2.3% in March.
In seasonally-adjusted terms, economic activity rose 0.6% month-on-month in March, contrasting February’s 0.2% contraction.