Brazil & Southern Cone - August 2015 (ISSN 1741-4431)

Unemployment: The rate of unemployment in the April-June period was 6.5%, down 0.1% on the preceding quarter, according to the national statistics institute (INE). According to the most recent (27 July 2015) report by the United Nations’ Economic Commission for Latin America & Caribbean (Eclac), unemployment in Chile averaged 6.4% in 2014. Eclac noted that this was “low” considering the sluggish economic environment, but added that it was an increase over the 2013 rate (5.9%), “as the participation rate rose by 0.25 percentage points while employment remained flat. In the first quarter of 2015, labour participation decreased, as both employment and unemployment rates fell (the latter to 6.1%)”.

Growth forecast: In a 2 August interview with the national daily La Tercera, the president of Chile’s central bank (BCCh), Rodrigo Vergara, said that the BCCh would lower its economic growth forecast range for the year, on weak domestic investment. On 6 July, Finance Minister Rodrigo Valdés told reporters that the government had cut its forecast for real annual GDP growth this year to 2.5%, down from 3.6% previously. Last year, annual growth was just 1.9%. Although Vergara did not give a figure in the La Tercera interview, he did not rule out the possibility that the top of the new range would be under 3%.