Chile's economic activity falls 1.7% month on month

According to EL PAÍS Chile, which reported the figures on its Instagram account, the Monthly Economic Activity Index (Imacec) fell 1.7% from the previous month and 2.1% over twelve months.

The issuing agency said the contraction in economic activity is explained mainly by a weakening in mining and, to a lesser extent, by services and industry. In the seasonally adjusted series, which excludes calendar-related variations, the indicator reflects a one-off setback in productive activity.

Goods production fell 3.2% year on year, a result driven by the performance of mining, particularly copper. The sector has been hit by lower ore grades, scheduled maintenance work and adverse weather conditions that temporarily halted extraction.

To put the country's macroeconomic performance in perspective, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects real GDP growth of 2.4% for 2026 and 2.6% for 2027, compared with 2.3% recorded in 2025 and 2.6% in 2024. These annual IMF projections indicate that the one-off monthly decline reflects transitory factors on the mining supply side and does not necessarily break the medium-term growth trend.