Chile job growth to continue, pace to slow: Pinera

SANTIAGO: The Chilean economy will keep adding jobs this year, but at a moderating pace as the export-dependent economy cools on the back of the euro zone's debt woes, President Sebastian Pinera told Reuters in an exclusive telephone interview on Thursday.

The jobless rate in the greater Santiago area fell to 6.2 percent in December, the lowest since March 1996, a poll conducted by the University of Chile showed on Thursday.

Chile's jobless rate in the September-November period edged down to 7.1 percent, boosted by a pickup in the agricultural and tourism-related sector as the Southern Hemisphere entered its summer.