Chilean Peso Appreciates as Copper Rises, China Reaffirms Policy

Chile’s peso gained for the first time in three days as China pledged to keep macroeconomic policies stable and copper, the South American nation’s biggest export earner, climbed to a six-week high.

The currency strengthened 0.2 percent to 480.52 per dollar as of 12:49 p.m. in Santiago, erasing earlier declines of as much as 0.4 percent. Copper for March delivery rose 0.6 percent to $3.677 a pound.

China, the Andean country’s biggest export market, will expand domestic demand and promote urbanization, the official Xinhua News Agency said in the first assessment of the economy under the country’s new leadership. The world’s second largest economy will probably maintain its official annual growth target of 7.5 percent next year, according to nine of 16 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News last month.

“Things are flying here, with copper high and China sticking at 7.5 percent,” said Alejandro Araya, a Santiago- based currency trader at Banco Santander Chile. “I don’t see how the dollar has a chance against the peso.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Sebastian Boyd in Santiago at sboyd9@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Papadopoulos at papadopoulos@bloomberg.net