Description

The Chilean monthly index of economic activity, Imacec, is an essential tool to measure the evolution of the economy in short-run. The international literature describes two approaches in the construction of synthetic indicators of economic activity, a stochastic one and an accounting one. The aforementioned index prepared by the Central Bank of Chile falls within the category of synthetic indicators with an accounting approach. It is built upon the input-output matrix, with 1996 as the base year. The methodology presented in this document is an updated version of the previous one that had 1986 as the base year.

To estimate the Imacec, various sources of information are used that must meet two key requisites: quality and timeliness. This latter factor means sometimes that the results must be revised afterwards. In those cases where no direct indicators are available for some variables, proxies and behavior hypotheses must be used. Jointly with the 12-month Imacec estimate, the seasonally adjusted indicator and the cyclical trend are calculated. Since the Quarterly National Accounts of Chile began being published (2005), the Imacec serves as a complementary indicator that adjusts to the quarterly statements, because these are more representative of the evolution of economic activity.