Workers at Chile’s biggest copper mine, Escondida, agreed yesterday to end their strike. Workers voted in favour of the latest agreement with the company, for a 40-month contract, with a 5.0% salary increase. The workers' shifts will conform to a 4x4 scheme, which means that they will work four days in the mine followed by four days of rest, until 2013. The workers originally demanded a 13% increase, while the company's offer was for 3%. The mine is expected to resume operations within seven days. The strike began on August 7, generating losses of over $15 million a day.
Hungary's trade deficit for 2005 has been revised up to 2.9 billion euros from 2.8 billion euros. The deficit for 2004 was 1.0 billion euros. Exports in 2005 were up 12.2% to 50.0 billion euros and imports were up 9.1% to 53.0 billion euros. Export prices in forint fell by 0.8%, while import prices gained 1.4% over the year,: Hungary’s terms of trade deteriorated by over 2%. The forint rose 1.01% against its main trading currencies, the euro and the dollar, during 2005.
The Bank of Thailand’s deputy governor Bandid Nijathaworn said domestic rates may not rise if economic growth stabilizes and inflation moderates. Thailand’s benchmark 14-day repurchase rate is 5%, 25 basis points below the Fed’s 5.25%.
The Indonesian market is expecting the central bank to reduce interest rates because of moderate August inflation data, due out today. The Jakarta Stock Exchange Composite index gained 0.4% yesterday.