SANTIAGO – With a rise of just 1.6% of the Gross Domestic Product in 2017, Chile returns to occupy for the fourth consecutive year the last place in terms of economic growth among the countries of the Pacific Alliance.
According to the newspaper La Tercera, Chile has “repeated its lowest growth since 2009″, standing at below 2.5% of GDP in Peru, 2.1% in Mexico and 1.8% in Colombia.
Nevertheless, the newspaper clarifies that in fact all the countries of the Alliance had a low economic advance due to a generalized weakness due to the fall of raw materials (oil and copper).
The four countries of the Alliance grew by only 2%, which represents the lowest growth in eight years. However, it is expected that by 2018 Chile will rise in position with a projected expansion of 3.1%, surpassing Colombia (2.5%) and Mexico (2.2%).
Other projections, such as those of the Monthly Survey of Economic Expectations, even project an expansion of 3.3% only in the first quarter of the year, which would represent the highest growth since the third quarter of 2013.
“Favored by the improvement of the global environment, the recovery of Latin America is also gaining momentum as the recessions of some countries (Brazil, Argentina and Ecuador) come to an end,” said the director of the Western Hemisphere of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Alejandro Werner.
The Minister of Finance, Macarena Lobos, agreed that the economy is heading towards growth. Lobos explained that if you look at the economic evolution of the country last year, which was 0.1% growth in the first half, then 1% in the second, 2.2% in the third and a 2.9% in the last, it is observed that the pattern is positive and aimed at increasing to 3%.
“If during much of the administration of President Bachelet the commodities cycle played against us, as well as the lower dynamism of foreign trade, today is in our favor, which makes us predict better economic expectations,” he said.
