Finance Minister Jorge Quiroz addressed at length the precarious situation of the Chilean economy, which has been marked by a labor emergency that has left nearly one million people without work, by the poor performance of economic activity crowned by the negative Imacec for August, and by the sense of unease caused by the constant increases in fuel prices.
In a conversation with Radio Infinita, the secretary of state said that, in the most immediate term, mining is the great drag on economic activity, and he acknowledged a calculation "error" because they had forecast a decline of between 10% and 12% in that sector, but not of 17% as reported by the Central Bank.
And on this point, the secretary stated that there is a "serious" problem in mining due to the drop that ore grades have experienced, which makes extracting the mineral more difficult and costly.
"The mechanical explanation is that the ore grades fell. It's a mechanical explanation that assumes that someone is doing mining and suddenly the ore grades drop. That happens in very small-scale mining.
In large-scale mining that does not happen. In large-scale mining, one knows when the lower ore grades are coming. And what we are actually observing is something we had been warning about, but we had not quantified the magnitude of its impact," he said.
During the conversation, the head of Teatinos 120 acknowledged that the performance of the mining sector, the country's most important, is what "does not e…
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PulseJorge Quiroz warned about the impact that the decline in ore grades is having on mining activity, admitting that it is "putting a question mark on our projections." Jorge Quiroz analyzed the complex situation of the economy. Dedvi Missene CommentsFinance Minister Jorge Quiroz addressed at length the precarious situation of the Chilean economy, which has been marked by a labor emergency that has left nearly one million people without work, by the poor performance of economic activity capped by the negative August Imacec, and by the sense of unease caused by the constant increases in fuel prices. In a conversation with Radio Infinita, the Secretary of State said that, in the most immediate term, mining is the great drag on economic activity, and he acknowledged a calculation "error" because they had projected a decline of between 10% and 12% in that sector, but not the 17% reported by the Central Bank. And on this point, the minister stated that there is a "serious" problem in mining due to the decline that ore grades have experienced, which makes extracting the mineral more difficult and costly. "The mechanical explanation is that the grades fell. It's a mechanical explanation that assumes that someone is doing mining and suddenly the grades drop. That happens in very small-scale mining. In large-scale mining, that doesn't happen. In large-scale mining, one knows when the lower grades are coming. And what we are finding is rather something we had been warning about, but we had not quantified the magnitude of its impact," he said. During the conversation, the head of Teatinos 120 acknowledged that the performance of mining activity, the country's most important sector, is what "is putting a question mark on our economic projections," recalling that if activity had fallen within the estimated range in August, the Imacec would have been positive. As a consequence of this, the head of the fiscal wallet advanced the ministry's official GDP growth projection for 2026, which should be announced next week as part of the State of Public Finance address. "We have an official projection of 0.7%," said Jorge Quiroz. The figure is considerably lower than the ministry's last official forecast of 1.8% expansion, although it could be considered optimistic compared to calculations by economists who have even projected a 2026 scenario with a negative close. More on:EconomyGDPGrowthJorge QuirozNEWSLETTERPulso PMMonday to Friday, 12:30 PMThe most relevant news on markets, companies and business: timely information, context and content to make better decisions. By subscribing you are accepting the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policies of La Tercera.