Macroeconomic outlook report: Chile

During the fourth quarter of 2018, Chilean GDP accelerated by 0.48 p.p. its year-over-year growth, to a rate of 3.27%. This performance was mainly due to higher growth in external demand, after registering an acceleration in exports and a deceleration in imports. In the labour market, the unemployment rate decreased by 0.24 p.p. from the previous quarter to 6.93%, while the year-over-year rate of employment creation slowed by 0.21 p.p. to 0.74%. Inflation stood at 2.76% after decelerating by 0.05 p.p. compared to 3Q18. The Chilean peso depreciated against the US dollar, to an average exchange rate of 678.81 $CLP/USD in 3Q18.

Macroeconomic overview

• During the last quarter of the year, the Chilean economy recorded a slowdown in its year-over-year GDP growth rate of 0.48 p.p. with respect to the previous quarter, to 3.27%. This performance was due to the performance of external demand, with an increase of 1.61 p.p. in the growth of exports compared to the previous quarter, to 2.88%; and a deceleration in imports, of 1.26 p.p. down to 6.71%.
• In the labour market, the unemployment rate fell by 0.24 p.p. from the previous quarter to 6.93%. The year-over-year growth rate of employment creation was 0.74%, decelerating by 0.21 p.p. with respect to the last quarter of the year.
• The Chilean peso depreciated against the U.S. dollar by 15.62 pesos per dollar during the fourth quarter of 2018 with respect to the previous quarter, recording an average exchange rate of 678.81 $CLP/USD. This was mainly based on the global strength of the North American currency, due to the normalization of the monetary policy by Fed. 
• Inflation stood at 2.76% in the last quarter of 2018, decelerating by 0.05 p.p. from the previous quarter, standing in the lower limit 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).