LatinNews Daily - 21 March 2023

* Chile’s central bank (BCCh) has released new figures showing that GDP grew by 2.4% in 2022 compared to the previous year. According to the BCCh, the economy exhibited a “declining performance” over the course of last year, as domestic demand grew in the first half of the year, driven by consumption, and slowed down in the second half of the year. The performance was led by services, particularly personal (+12.1%), business (+6%) and transportation (+10.5%) services. In contrast, the production of goods fell, with mining (-4.1%) and manufacturing (-2.5%) having the greatest impact on this result. Meanwhile, commercial activity also declined by 4.2%, consistent with the drop in goods consumption. In seasonally adjusted terms, GDP increased by 0.1% in the last quarter of 2022 with respect to the previous period, led by an acceleration in mining and trade activities, an effect which the BCCh states was almost entirely offset by a reduction in transportation.