Latinnews Daily - 02 October 2017

Chile: Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet has sent down the proposed State budget for 2018 to the bicameral legislature. The initiative calls for a 3.9% increase in spending which will prioritise investments in infrastructure, education and health. President Bachelet said the proposed increase in spending is based on “encouraging” economic forecasts, noting that “in 2018 we could grow twice as much as in 2017”. According to the most recent (September 2017) report by Chile’s central bank (BCCh), the monthly economic activity index (Imacec) was up by 2.8% in July 2017 compared with the same month last year. The mining Imacec was up 5.2% year-on-year in July, while the non-mining Imacec was up 2.6%. The July Imacec is higher than the 1.4% year-on-year increase registered in June. Last month the BCCh revised up its GDP growth forecast for the year from 1%-1.75% to 1.25%-1.75%. A BCCh report explained that the revision answers to the better-than-expected level of economic activity registered so far and the more favourable external economic scenario anticipated for the second half of the year, with “an end in retrenchment in mining sector investment, a lack of economic imbalances, and a clearly expansive monetary policy”.

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