The Chilean central bank announced that the Imacec, the monthly indicator of the country’s economic activities, has increased by 6.4 percent in May from April.
According to the central bank, the result is higher than expectations from analysts, who previously forecasted increases ranging from 5 to 6 percent.
The central bank added that service activities were the main driver for the increase, followed by the production of consumer goods from manufacturing industries. The index of service activities has shown an increase of 11.9 percent, reflecting chiefly personal services such as education, transportation and other services offered by companies. In the negative side, mining activities declined by 0.1 percent.
Meanwhile, research developed by economic institute Icare and by the University Alfonso Ibanez (UAI) unveiled that the confidence by entrepreneurs in the Chilean economy continues in a downward trend for five consecutive months, having achieved its lowest level in almost two years.