Archive:Chile-EU - statistical indicators and trade figures
This Statistics Explained article is outdated and has been archived - for recent articles on non-EU countries see here.
- Data from June 2014. Most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database.
This article compares recent basic statistics for Chile and the European Union (EU). The Republic of Chile is one of South America’s most stable and prosperous nations. Endowed with mineral wealth, it is rich in agricultural resources, forests and grazing lands. One third of world production of copper comes from Chile. Copper is the main product exported.
Chile has actively liberalised trade, as is reflected in its wide network of trade agreements - 24 with 61 countries. The Association Agreement signed in 2002 between the EU and Chile, whose trade pillar came into force in 2003, has made a positive contribution to trade between the two partners. Chile became a Member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in early 1995 and, in May 2010, it became the first South American country to join the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
In 2012, Chile, together with Colombia, Mexico and Peru, signed a framework agreement setting up the Pacific Alliance as a deep integration area. In line with the mandate included therein, negotiations continue on the free movement of goods, services, capital and people and the promotion of investment on the basis of existing trade and investment frameworks between the parties. The EU is Chile’s third main partner for both goods imports and exports. Close to a third of Chile’s copper exports go to the EU-28.
Chile has one of the world’s most productive marine ecosystems and benefits from the Humboldt Current, one of the world’s largest upwelling systems (the motion of cool, nutrient-rich waters towards the ocean surface replaces the warmer, usually nutrient-depleted surface water). As a result, marine fishing is a major part of Chile’s production.
(million EUR)
Source: Eurostat (ext_lt_introle)
(billion EUR)
Source: DG Trade-Countries and regions-Chile
(billion EUR)
Source: DG Trade-Countries and regions-Chile
_imported_by_the_EU-28_from_Chile,_July_2014_.png)
_exported_by_the_EU-28_to_Chile,_July_2014.png)
(percentage of the total population aged 15 years and over)
Source: Anuario Estadistico 2013
(percentage of the total population aged 15–64)
Source: Eurostat (lfsi_act_a)
(percentage of the total employed population)
Source: Anuario Estadistico 2013 and ECLAC
(percentage of the total employed population)
Source: Eurostat (lfsa_egan2)
Main statistical findings
Economic statistics on the external sector
Chile’s economy displayed robustness in the face of recent adversity such as the world recession, a large drop in the price of copper, as well as the second-strongest earthquake in the country’s history in February 2010. GDP has grown strongly since 2000. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the average annual growth rate in 2013 was almost 5 %. The public deficit was 0.6 % of GDP and Chilean sovereign wealth funds exceeded their pre-crisis levels reaching record highs (USD 22.75 billion). Chile’s public debt stands at 12.8 % of GDP in 2013 (one of the lowest in the world).
Chilean exports played an important role in the growth of the economy over the last decades. Trade liberalisation as well as policies such as the exchange-rate policy pursued since 1982, the introduction of drawback arrangements and subsidies for exports of relatively minor importance in the mid-1980s, acted as an important stimulus. A debt conversion programme was also introduced to stimulate new production activities to export specific goods after the debt crisis. Moreover substantial subsidies were provided for the forestry sector helping to stimulate the economy.
The value of Chile’s exports and imports increased steadily over the years and reached a maximum of USD 95 billion and USD 87 billion respectively in 2011 (Table 1) with exports remaining higher than imports. However, having declined noticeably in 2012, Chile’s exports further decreased in 2013, as imports continued to rise. This confirms Chile’s narrowing trade surplus as the gap between exports and imports continues to shrink mainly as a result of lower copper prices, further hinting at a weakening economy. Like other South American nations, Chile is suffering from lower international prices for its main export products, which mainly consist of primary products, especially copper. Although exports of manufactured products have increased over the years, they still remain relatively low (Table 2).
Tables 3 and 4 present the EU’s export and import figures in order to illustrate its position in world trade. By contrast with Chile, manufactured goods account for the biggest share of EU exports. All products included in Standard international trade classification (SITC) sections 5 to 8 are defined as manufactured goods, i.e. chemicals and related products, N.E.S. [1]; machinery and transport equipment; as well as other manufactured goods. Primary products are all included in SITC sections 0 to 4, i.e. food, drinks and tobacco; raw materials; as well as mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials.
The EU-28 remains Chile’s third most important trading partner representing 15.6 % of its total trade in 2013. The EU-28 is Chile’s second export destination (behind China) and third-largest import supplier (behind China and the United States) as shown in Figure 1. Although the United States replaced the EU-28 as the second most important trading partner in 2011, it should be noted that, from 2012 to 2013, the gap between EU and US market shares in Chilean trade decreased substantially to a mere 0.8 %. Data from the Chilean Central Bank comparing the performance of the country’s main goods importers shows that imports from the EU increased the most (+23 % year-on-year) while imports from the United States fell by 14 % and imports from China increased moderately (+9 %).
Trade with the EU
In 2013, EU exports of goods to Chile surpassed EU imports by EUR 0.2 billion — marking the EU’s first ever trade surplus with Chile (see Figure 2). This change in trend is attributable to a 9 % increase in EU exports to EUR 9.2 billion, while imports decreased by 7 % to EUR 9.0 billion. EU-28 exports to Chile have been growing at an annual average rate of 12 % since 2003, from EUR 3.9 billion to EUR 9.2 billion.
The increase in EU exports was driven by a rise in the quantity of exported goods (+ 20 %) since prices actually fell (– 9 %). Moreover, the increase took place despite a depreciation in the Chilean peso-to-euro exchange rate (from CLP 625/EUR in 2012 to CLP 657/EUR in 2013) that made European goods more expensive.
In 2013, EU imports from Chile fell by 7 % from EUR 9.7 billion to EUR 9.0 billion. Despite this drop, import levels remained above those of 2009, i.e. pre-crisis. This decrease in import value can be attributed to a decrease in price (– 10 %) since the quantity of imports actually increased (+ 3 %).
Goods trade between the EU and Chile has been characterised by higher Chilean than EU export values, especially during the years of strong economic growth (2003–08). From 2003 — when the EU-Chile Association Agreement entered into force — to 2013, bilateral trade grew by 129 % (from EUR 8.0 billion to EUR 18.2 billion).
EU exports of services to Chile increased steadily from 2010 to 2012, while imports from Chile stagnated. In fact, EU exports of services were larger than EU imports in 2010, 2011 and 2012, highlighting a growing EU trade surplus with Chile for services (see Figure 3).
Since 2004, EU exports of services to Chile have increased by 138 % while imports have increased by 94 %. In 2012 the EU exported around EUR 3.2 billion worth of services to Chile, with an annual average growth rate of 14 %. In 2012 almost half of these were transportation services (EUR 1.3 billion) followed by insurance and other business services.
In the same year the EU imported EUR 1.6 billion worth of services from Chile, of which transportation also represented just over half at EUR 0.9 billion followed by communication and other financial services and business and personal travel.
Figures 4 and 5 show EU-28 imports from Chile and EU-28 exports to Chile respectively, in 2014 at SITC (1-digit) section level. Manufactured goods classified chiefly by material (SITC6) and crude materials, inedible, except fuels (SITC2) each represented 30 % of EU-28 imports from Chile, and food and live animals (SITC0) accounted for a further 20 %. The same pattern holds true for the previous years (Table 5), although manufactured goods have lost around 10 % of their share to crude materials from 2002 to 2014.
Machinery and transport equipment (SITC7) accounted for more than half of EU-28 exports to Chile in 2014 followed by chemicals with a 16 % share and manufactured goods with 13 %. Machinery and transport equipment (SITC7) have topped the list of EU exports to Chile since 2002 (Table 6). As for imports, the last decade has not seen significant differences in the distribution of exports by SITC categories. The three groups of products above have always accounted for around 80 % of exports from EU to Chile.
A breakdown of imports by SITC division level (2-digit) shows that manufactured goods classified chiefly by material (SITC6) imported from Chile consist mainly of non-ferrous metals (copper — the main imported product). Crude materials, inedible, except fuels (SITC2), consisting mainly of metalliferrous ores and metal scrap (again mostly copper), are the second most important EU-28 import from Chile (Figure 6, data from July 2014). Other crude materials include pulp and waste paper and cork and wood manufactures (excluding furniture).
The agricultural sector contributes to total EU imports from Chile, mainly in the form of vegetables and fruit, which are the third main imported products. Fish (not marine mammals), crustaceans, molluscs and aquatic invertebrates, and preparations thereof, meat and meat preparations, feeding stuff for animals (not including unmilled cereals) were also among the leading food and live animals imported from Chile.
A more detailed breakdown shows that EU-28 imports of non-ferrous metal products from Chile consist almost entirely of copper products, while most imports of metalliferrous ores and metal scrap are copper ores, concentrates, copper mattes, cement copper, ores and concentrates of base metals.
The share of copper and non-copper EU imports from Chile for the years 2003–13 is shown in Figure 7. For the first time since 2009, copper imports represent less than half of total imports from Chile with 46 % (EUR 4.2 billion). However, there is a close link between the share of copper in total imports and the copper price. The copper price reached significant lows in 2013, falling by 8 % compared with 2012 (from USD 3.6/lb to USD 3.3/lb) or 18 % compared to its high in 2011 (USD 4.0/lb). Chilean exports of copper to the EU also fell in terms of quantity, but only very marginally (– 0.7 %).
Thus, had the EU imported copper at its 2012 price, overall Chilean exports to the EU would have reached EUR 9 730 million, i.e. an increase (albeit slight, at 0.3 %) compared with 2012. In general, the fall in the copper price was worse than anticipated reflecting the slowdown in China (responsible for 47 % of world copper consumption and almost 40 % of Chile’s total copper exports).
Non-copper imports represented more than half (54 %) of total EU imports from Chile and reached EUR 4.8 billion. These include fruits, products of pulp wood and cellulose, wine, and inorganic chemicals (see Figure 7).
Figure 8 presents the EU-28’s main exports to Chile classified by SITC division level (2-digit). Machinery and transport equipment topped the list, more specifically:
- general industrial machinery and equipment, N.E.S., and machine parts, N.E.S.;
- road vehicles (including air-cushion vehicles);
- machinery specialised for particular industries;
- other transport equipment;
- electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances, N.E.S., and electrical parts thereof (including non-electrical counterparts, N.E.S., of electrical household-type equipment); and
- power-generating machinery and equipment.
The EU’s top ten exports also included:
- chemical materials and products, N.E.S.;
- medicinal and pharmaceutical products;
- manufactures of metals, N.E.S.; and
- paper, paperboard and articles of paper pulp, of paper or of paperboard.
Foreign direct investment
Chile and Mexico continued to be the largest sources of FDI in Latin America in 2013, but both reduced their outflows significantly. Chile’s outflows reverted to the level of previous years after very high outflows in 2011 and 2012 (Figure 9). In 2013, outflows dropped to USD 10 billion, 49 % less than in 2012, but this drop should not be seen as a change in the upward trend of previous years.
In 2013, inflows into Chile amounted to USD 20 billion, 29 % less than the previous year but still much higher than the average of the previous decade (Figure 10). Chile is now the third highest recipient (after Brazil and Mexico) of FDI inflows in Latin America and one of the largest in relation to the size of its economy. It is worth noting that Chile has the highest FDI stock in Latin America in terms of the size of its economy, representing an impressive 77 % of its GDP, compared with Brazil with 33 % or the regional average of 35 % [2].
Mining was by far the largest recipient of inflows followed by manufacturing and services (Table 7). In 2012, 54 % of Chile’s inward foreign investment was in natural resources, and this share of FDI has been increasing since 2006 (when it was 45 %). The investment in manufacture has been less stable and its share has decreased since 2006, while FDI in Chile’s service sector has grown steadily. In 2012 it was 4 times larger than its value in 2006 (USD 11 billion) and its share of inward FDI to Chile had increased from a 36 % to 41 %.
The EU-28 share of FDI in Chile has traditionally been the largest, with Spain holding the top spot. The United States was the second main investor in Chile, followed by Canada and Japan (Table 8).
When analysed as a whole, the EU-28 is the largest investor in Chile in terms of stock with high quality investments that are diversified in many sectors. The EU-28 still represents the largest share with 25 % (USD 50 billion) of all FDI stock, followed by the United States (USD 28 billion; 13 %) and Canada (USD 12 billion; 5 %).
Sectors traditionally targeted by the EU are mining, financial services, communications and utilities. In 2013, the Chilean electricity, gas and water sector drew in almost as much FDI as the mining and financial sectors combined.
Activity and employment
Over the past two decades, economic progress has had many positive effects on the labour market. However the Chilean and EU labour markets retain their distinctive features.
The participation of Chilean women in the employment market has traditionally been very low. However the economic participation rates of Chile’s female population compared with the male population has been increasing (Figure 11). In the EU, although the activity rate of women is lower than that of men, it is higher than the economic participation of women in Chile (Figure 12).
Chile’s unemployment rate has generally been in decline since 2000 (from 10.7 % in 2000 to 5.9 % in 2013), except for the crisis year of 2009, while the EU-28 unemployment rate still shows an upward trend (Figure 13).
Figure 14 shows Chile’s total employed population structure by sector of the economy. Services, and specifically trade, employ by far the most people (26 %). While this large share of the workforce is concentrated in trade, the other economic activities have similar shares varying between 8 % and 10 %.
Looking at the EU’s employment structure by economic sector, it appears more dispersed, although, like in Chile, the two main sectors are manufacturing and trade. In the EU-28 manufacturing held a higher share (16 %) than trade (14 %) (Figure 15). a breakdown of the wholesale and retail trade sectors to NACE Rev. 2 two-digit level shows that the retail trade sector (excluding motor vehicles and motorcycles) employed the largest proportion of employees in the EU-28’s trade sector.
Data sources and availability
The sources for the statistics in this publication are essentially Eurostat for the EU-28, and the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE, National Institute of Statistics) for Chilean data. Data on international trade have been taken from Eurostat’s Comext database. It should be noted that Comext is updated regularly. Several data are also taken from the ‘Statistical Yearbook for Latin America and the Caribbean’. Data were obtained mainly from ECLAC.
The data on Chilean production and exports of minerals were obtained from the Comisión Chilena del Cobre — Cochilco (Chilean Copper Commission), from the Central Bank of Chile as well as from Eurostat.
The data on foreign direct investment were obtained from the document ‘Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean’. Data were obtained mainly from the UN and ECLAC and from the document ‘Inward and External Direct Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean’.
Context
This statistical article was prepared jointly by Eurostat and Chile’s INE within the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding signed by both institutions in 2010.
The EU and Chile signed an Association Agreement in 2002 which came into force in 2003 and has since made a positive contribution to trade between the two partners.
The EU is Chile’s third main partner for both goods imports and exports. Chile’s economy displayed robustness in the face of recent adversity: the world recession, a large drop in the price of copper, as well as the second-strongest earthquake in the country’s history in February 2010.
See also
Further Eurostat information
Publications
- EU-Chile trade flows in 2013
- Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean
- Inward and External Direct Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean
- Statistical Yearbook for Latin America and the Caribbean — source ECLAC
Main tables
- International trade, see:
- International trade data (t_ext)
- International trade long-term indicators (t_ext_lti)
- International trade short-term indicators (t_ext_sti)
Database
- International trade, see:
- International trade data (ext)
- International trade long-term indicators (ext_lti)
- International trade short-term indicators (ext_sti)
- International trade detailed data (detail)
Traditional external trade database access (ComExt) (comext)
- Labour force statistics, see:
- LFS series — Detailed quarterly survey results (from 1998) (lfsq) (Information on NACE Rev.2)
- Activity and activity rates — LFS series (lfsq_act)
Dedicated section
Methodology / Metadata
Methodology for international trade statistics
In the methodology applied for statistics on the trade of goods, extra-EU trade statistics (trade between EU Member States and non-member countries) do not record exchanges involving goods in transit, placed in a customs warehouse or given temporary admission (for trade fairs, temporary exhibitions, tests, etc.). This is known as ‘special trade’. The partner can either be the country of final destination of the goods (for exports) or the country of origin (for imports).
c.i.f./f.o.b./lb
These are global shipping terms used in international trade:
- c.i.f.: ‘cost insurance and freight’; this means the shipper/trader has to pay the cost of shipment up to the ship, insurance cost of cargo and freight cost up to destination port;
- f.o.b.: ‘free on board’ which means the shipper/trader only pays the costs up to the ship and insurance cost, but freight charges are paid by the buyer/consignee;
- lb: pound or pound-mass, unit of mass (Latin: libra), equivalent to 0.45359237 kilograms.
SITC classification
Information on commodities exported and imported are presented according to the Standard international trade classification (SITC) at a more general level (1-digit — Tables 4, 5 and 6, Figures 4 and 5) and at a more detailed level (2-digits — Figures 6 and 8). 3-digit level figures are referred to in the text.
SITC 1-digit
SITC0 — food and live animals SITC1 — beverages and tobacco SITC2 — crude materials, inedible, except fuels SITC3 — mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials SITC4 — animal and vegetable oils, fats and waxes SITC5 — chemicals and related products, N.E.S. SITC6 — manufactured goods classified chiefly by material SITC7 — machinery and transport equipment SITC8 — miscellaneous manufactured articles SITC9 — commodities and transactions not classified elsewhere in the SITC
A full description is available from Eurostat’s classification server RAMON.
Activity and employment indicators
Before the early 2000s the EU Labour force survey (LFS) was conducted annually in the spring, rather than quarterly. Spring was considered a period representative of the labour situation in the whole year. The changeover from an annual survey to a continuous, quarterly survey took place between 1998 and 2004, depending on the EU Member State. For more information on the transition to a quarterly continuous survey, see the EU-LFS Metadata page.
Source data for tables, figures and maps (MS Excel)
External links
- Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
- Chile — Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas
- European Commission — Trade — Chile