Chilean economy, which is strongly dependent on industrial metals mining, surprised analysts with its January results. Yet, the worst is not over yet.
Chilean Central Bank announced that GDP of one of the smallest economies in Latin America grew in 1,5% year-on-year. The economic growth came as a surprise. Mining industry in Chile grew, when the volume increased in 2,2%, particularly in industrial metals mining sector. Market consensus appeared in 0,7 percentage points lower.
Yet, strategic raw materials miners may expect some bad outlooks, while coronavirus epidemic spreading from China all over the world could not be reflected in January results yet. Even though Chile has no cases of infected by coronavirus so far, the country will likely be affected by global economy slowdown.
The strongest impact will probably come from China, which is Chilean largest copper and lithium consumer. According to OECD forecasts, China’s economy will slow down its economic growth under 5%, while last year the economy grew in 6%. Libertad y Desarrollo, Chilean think tank focused on liberal, free market economic studies, warned of negative prospects.
