SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Chile’s manufacturing output jumped 6.2% in October, government statistics agency INE said on Monday, while its copper output sagged slightly.
The world’s top copper producer saw its output of the coveted red metal fall 0.2% to 492,761 tonnes in October, the agency said.
The South American mining giant has nonetheless managed to boost its total production thus far in 2020 by 0.4%, to 4.8 million tonnes, despite a severe, months-long coronavirus outbreak that hammered its economy.
The production of food, and especially trout and salmon – key Chilean exports – helped drive the increase in manufacturing, the agency said.
(Reporting by Dave Sherwood; Editing by Toby Chopra and Bernadette Baum)
