Economic growth estimated at 5% for 2007

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SANTIAGO.- Following the Central Bank's announcement that the Monthly Economic Activity Indicator (Imacec) rose 4.6% in November of 2007, experts have estimated the final annual economic growth rate to be about 5%.

Tomás Flores, Director of the Institute for Studies of Liberty and Development, has forecasted that, with the reported figure, the Chilean economy could report growth of approximately 4.6% for the last trimester in 2007— closing out the year with a total increase of 5.2%.

For Flores, November's Imacec "does not greatly differ from predictions. We had forecasted close to 5% growth, but when the National Statistics Institute (INE) released the data for industrial production and mining, we lowered it to 4.6%, so it isn't really a surprising figure, nor is it a very good one obviously", he stated.

Erik Haindl, an economist for Gabriela Mistral University, estimated the growth of economic activity to be about 5% for 2007 –a number "much lower than expected", he said.