The most recent result of the indicator was influenced by the strong contraction of commerce, the manufacturing industry and was higher than the -0.4% recorded in September, the first year-on-year drop amid the complex economic scenario that Chile is facing.
This Thursday morning the Banco Central (BC) announced that the Monthly Indicator of Economic Activity (Imacec) fell 1.2% in October compared to the same month in 2021, which had one more business day than this year.
“The seasonally adjusted series increased 0.5% compared to the previous month and fell 0.8% in twelve months,” they detailed in a statement.
According to the data provided by the issuing institute, the contraction can be explained by the Negative performance of areas such as commerce (-10.3%) and the manufacturing industry (-5%).
Commerce, specifically, registered problems in its retail and wholesale areas.
“Both activities presented widespread falls in all their components,” they explained from the BC.
While lower sales in large stores and supermarkets affected retailers, raw materials, food, beverages, machinery and equipment influenced wholesalers.
As for the non-mining Imacec, it presented a decrease of 1.8% in twelve months, while in seasonally adjusted terms it fell 0.4% compared to the previous month.
On the other hand, the production of goods grew 0.7% thanks to the mining pulse, although this was limited by the already mentioned results of the industry.
Services also presented growth of 0.9%, which can be explained by the results of business services, followed by transportation.
Of course, with seasonally adjusted figures, service activities presented a fall of 0.6% compared to the previous month.
The Imacec for September, of -0.4%, left the first year-on-year drop in activity and in August the indicator had no variation.
Going through a complex economic panorama, the Minister of Finance has already been against the idea of declare a holiday on December 26, something similar to what happened with September 16 recently passed to celebrate the National Holidays “as it matches”.