Chilean Peso Falls for First Time in Four Days as Copper Drops
By Daniel Helft
March 9 (Bloomberg) -- The Chilean peso fell for the first time in four days amid a decline in the price of copper, the country's biggest export.
Copper prices in New York fell by the most in a week after inventories jumped 15 percent in China, fueling speculation that demand is slowing in the world's biggest user of the metal.
``The copper news has hit the currency,'' said Michel Oliger, a trader with Banco de Credito e Inversiones SA in Santiago.
The peso fell 0.2 percent to 538.56 per dollar at 3:25 p.m. in New York. The peso has dropped 0.9 percent this year.
Copper futures for May delivery fell 4.8 cents, or 1.7 percent, to $2.7850 a pound on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices are up almost 40 percent in the past 12 months.
Stockpiles in warehouses monitored weekly by the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose to 46,913 metric tons, the highest since Sept. 7, from 40,886 tons on March 2, the exchange said today.
Copper prices have more than doubled in the last three years as demand boomed in China, the world's fastest-growing major economy.
To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Helft in Buenos Aires at dhelft@bloomberg.net .
Last Updated: March 9, 2007 15:28 EST
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