Velasco: Economy grew by 4.8% in April

SANTIAGO.- According to an announcement made this morning by the minister of Finance, Andrés Velasco, the Chilean economy grew by 4.8% during April of this year.  The announcement has preceded the official report that has yet to be released by the Central Bank.

“We will announce the growth rate today (...) and we have good news, the economy grew by 4.8%, some analysts had been predicting about 3%, we have a figure much higher than what had been expected”, Velasco stated to TVN.

At 8:30 this morning, the Central Bank confirmed the 4.8% rise in the Imacec (Monthly Economic Activity Indicator) for April compared to the same month during last year.

The Central Bank report mentioned that the result was positively affected by the fact that there were two more workdays in April of this year than in 2007, as well as the dynamic trend observed in the Trade and Communication sectors. 

The report also explained that the deseasonalized series rose 0.6% compared to the previous month, while the trend-cycle series registered an annual increase of 4.2%.

According to a poll performed by Bloomberg, analysts had been expecting the economy to grow by 3.5% for the fourth month of this year.

The Imacec climbed by 0.7% in March of this year, making for the lowest increase in six years.  Meanwhile, in January and February, the figure rose by 3.4% and 5.6% respectively.