(Bloomberg) -- Chile’s central bank has a mystery source of statistics that is bolstering the case for higher interest rates.

Policy makers cited “complementary sources of information on the labor market -- including administrative records” that show a stronger labor market, when they raised the key interest rate by a quarter point to 2.75 percent Thursday.

The comments are at odds with figures from the statistic agency that show the jobless rate at a seven-year high in August and real wages stagnating for the first time in at least eight years. The bank didn’t immediately respond to requests for clarification.

Policy makers are most likely looking at the figures from the pension system, said Nathan Pincheira, chief economist at Fynsa. The number of people paying into the system rose 2.8 percent in August from the year earlier, triple the 0.9 percent increase in the number of people in work calculated by the statistics agency. Individual pension payments leaped 3.9 percent over the same period, implying more people are holding down two jobs.

In addition, average wages climbed 4.7 percent, according to the pension system, double the 2.4 percent rate estimated by the statistics agency.

--With assistance from Eduardo Thomson.

To contact the reporter on this story: Philip Sanders in Santiago at psanders@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Vivianne Rodrigues at vrodrigues3@bloomberg.net, Andres R. Martinez

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