Chile's trade surplus narrowed to USD 1031 million in January 2019 from USD 1151 million in the same month of the previous year. Imports rose 3.0 percent year-on-year to USD 5639 million, mainly due to higher purchases of capital goods (17.7 percent), namely other machinery (51.3 percent) and machinery for mining and construction (20.6 percent). Meanwhile, imports dropped for consumer goods (-0.1 percent), of which durable (-0.8 percent) and intermediate (-1.8 percent), mainly energy products (-7.0 percent). Exports went up 0.6 percent to USD 6671 million in January, mostly driven by sales of agricultural goods (7.3 percent) and manufactured goods (2.0 percent). On the other hand, sales of mining products declined (-3.3 percent). Balance of Trade in Chile averaged 5304.49 USD Million from 1991 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 1031000 USD Million in January of 2019 and a record low of -1384.72 USD Million in October of 2008.
Balance of Trade in Chile is expected to be 1450.00 USD Million by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Balance of Trade in Chile to stand at 1380.00 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the Chile Balance of Trade is projected to trend around 100.00 USD Million in 2020, according to our econometric models.