SANTIAGO: Chile's unemployment rate eased to 10.8% between September and November, the government said on Thursday, but remained well above the same period the previous year as the coronavirus pandemic continued to weigh on the economy of the world's top copper producer.

Unemployment has been falling for four consecutive months after hitting a decade-long high of 13.1% in July, during the peak of the pandemic. The jobless rate during the August-to-October period was 11.6%.

The unemployment rate nonetheless remains 3.8 percentage points higher through November compared with the same period of the previous year, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

Many Chileans lost their jobs in the past year after the economy suffered a one-two punch of mass protests in 2019, followed by the coronavirus outbreak that began in March.

Chile's central bank predicts gross domestic product will fall between 5.75% and 6.25% this year amid the pandemic.