Chile's jobless rate unexpectedly fell in the March-May period while May industrial production slowed more than forecast, sending mixed signals on the state of the economy, official figures showed on Wednesday.
The mainstay of the economy, copper production, which accounts for more than half of Chile's exports, swung upwards 3.9 percent from the same period a year ago to 479,049 tonnes.
Copper output in the first five months of the year rose 5.5 percent compared to the same period last year to 2.279 million tonnes, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE). The jobless data, also released by the INE, showed unemployment in the three months to the end of May was 6.7 percent, down from 6.8 percent in the February-to-April period reported last month.
The figure was below the 7.0 percent median forecast of 11 analysts and economists polled by Reuters and well below the 8.8 percent recorded in the same period in 2006.
"The jobless rate was a surprise," said Alejandro Fernandez, economist at local brokerage Consultora Gemines. "There's no doubt it could be due to the rise in the rate of economic growth but these figures are also still being distorted by changes in the way the rate is measured." Unemployment has been on a downward trajectory since around 2004 and hit an eight-year low of 6.0 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.
Even so, Wednesday's figure came as a surprise because unemployment usually rises at this time of the year as Chile approaches the southern hemisphere winter, which tends to lead to a drop in agricultural employment.
Agricultural employment rose in the period for the first recorded time this year, although the biggest contribution to the fall in the jobless rate came from the industrial sector, where employment increased 5.3 percent from the same period in 2006.
The good news on unemployment was tempered by a surprisingly weak figure for Chilean industrial output growth, which rose 3.0 percent in May from the same period a year ago after a rise of 5.2 percent in April, the INE said. The rise was well below the median forecast of seven economists polled by Reuters, who had predicted a rise of 5.0 percent and was the weakest figure since January this year, when it rose 2.9 percent.
Comments
Comments are closed.