SANTIAGO DE CHILE, May 21 (NNN-Prensa Latina) The Chilean economy scored a weak growth of 1.6 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the first quarter of 2019, reported the Chilean Central Bank on Monday, much lower than government”s predictions.
The Chilean Central Bank said the poor outcome was caused by a 3.6 percent fall in the national mining production, especially in the extraction of copper, the country’s main money maker, and a decrease of 1.2 percent of the agricultural sector, while the rest of the national economy grew 2.2 percent
The Central Bank also pointed out that investments increased 2,9 per cent in the first three months of the year, showing a slowing down of this important section compared to previous stages.
For analysts, this performance of the economy is the lowest since mid-2017 and is far from the goal of the government, which insists on maintaining an economic growth of 3.5 percent for the current year.
Faced with these meager results, Finance Minister Felipe Larrain repeated that the economy ‘will go from less to more’ during the year, and although he admitted that the government is satisfied with this poor growth, he said he is convinced that there will be a strong recovery in the second quarter. However, he did not explain how this leap forward will be achieved, but he considered that if Congress approves a series of government-proposed reforms that has on its agenda, they would significantly help the national economy to take off.
Larrain considered as causes for the low growth the international economic situation, influenced by the trade war between the United States and China, in addition to bad weather that paralyzed for days the mining enclaves of the north of the country in February.
NNN-Prensa Latina
