CHILE – The Monthly Index of Construction Activity (IMACON), prepared by the Chilean Chamber of Construction (CChC), registered an annual increase of 4.4% in January, which constitutes the third positive variation after fourteen consecutive months of contraction.

The Chamber’s research manager, Javier Hurtado, said that “this is the best result recorded by the construction activity since March 2016 and is explained both by a statistical effect of lower bases of comparison and by greater growth in indicators of sales of suppliers and industrial supply orders.”

Meanwhile, Sergio Torretti, president of the CChC, said, “We are confident that the best expectations of the economic agents will result in the reactivation of projects and in the generation of new investment initiatives, which favors our sector activity and the growth of the whole country. In this context, it is important to continue strengthening the public-private partnership and remove barriers that unnecessarily hinder the execution of projects.”

The construction sector in Chile could see an improvement linked to expectations of enhanced dynamism of investments with the government of Sebastián Piñera, who assumed recently.

This outlook has benefited construction firms stock, which according to analysts could be among the most favored during Piñera’s term.