Macroeconomic outlook report: Chile

During the second quarter of 2018, Chilean GDP slowed by 0.14 p.p. year-over-year to 4.99%. This performance was mainly due to lower growth in external demand, following a slowdown in exports and an acceleration in imports. In the labour market, the unemployment rate increased by 0.27 p.p. from the previous quarter to 6.97%, while the year-over-year rate of employment creation slowed by 0.35 p.p. to 2.11%. Inflation stood at 2.16% after accelerating by 0.16 p.p. compared to 1Q18. The Chilean peso depreciated against the US dollar, to an average exchange rate of 620.94 CLP/USD in 2Q18.

Macroeconomic overview

• During the second quarter of the year, the Chilean economy recorded a slowdown in its year-over-year GDP growth rate of 0.14 p.p with respect to the previous quarter, to 4.99%. This performance was due to the worse performance of external demand, with a 0.24 p.p. slowdown in exports compared to the previous quarter, to 7.98%; and an acceleration in imports of 3.85 p.p. to 9.93%.
• In the labour market, the unemployment rate rose by 0.27 p.p. from the previous quarter to 6.97%. The year-over-year growth rate of employment creation was 2.11%, decelerating by 0.35 p.p with respect to the first quarter of the year.
• The Chilean peso depreciated against the U.S. dollar by 19 pesos per dollar during the second quarter of 2018 with respect to the previous quarter, recording an average exchange rate of 620.94 CLP/USD. This was mainly based on the lower appetite for risk in the financial markets, caused by changes in expectations about the pace of normalization of monetary policy in the USA.
• Inflation stood at 2.16% in the second quarter of 2018, accelerating by 0.16 p.p. from the previous quarter, within the target range of the Central Bank of Chile, set at 3% and with a maximum oscillation of one percentage point.

For more information, click here to access the executive document in pdf (only avalaible in Spanish).