Chile's economy will likely grow around 2 percent this year, lower than previously forecast, after a deeper-than-expected slowdown in the last four months, Finance Minister Alberto Arenas said in an interview with a newspaper on Sunday. "Our projections are closely in line with those of the central bank...the economy will grow around 2 percent this year," Arenas told local paper La Tercera.
Sparked by a slowdown in mining investment, the economy of the top copper exporter has weakened rapidly in 2014, leading the central bank to repeatedly cut growth forecasts. Earlier this month the bank predicted growth of between 1.75 and 2.25 percent for the year.
Arenas reiterated previous comments that a recovery would start in the final quarter of 2014 and said growth in 2015 should be around 1.5 percentage points better than 2014.
"In the 2015 Budget we will have a counter-cyclical fiscal policy to do from the public sector all that is necessary to confront this lower growth," he said.
The possibility of negative growth "is ruled out and not in anyone's scenarios," Arenas said.