(Updates with quote from President Pinera, adds background) SANTIAGO, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Chile’s gross domestic product grew 18.1% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2021, the country’s central bank said on Wednesday, as the economy of the world’s top copper producer regained ground after plunging during the pandemic last year. GDP grew 1% from April through June this year compared with the first quarter, the bank said, edging up as health-related restrictions remained in place across the country through much of the second quarter. Nearly 70% of Chile’s population is now fully vaccinated, according to a Reuters tally, but the benefits of the South American nation’s blistering mass vaccination drive have only recently become evident, with cases plunging dramatically in recent weeks. The strong year-on-year growth in the second quarter reflected the low base of comparison with the previous year, when Chile was in the depths of a pandemic that began in March. Government economic support for households and businesses, the drawdown by Chileans of their privately held pension funds and a “greater adaptation of the economy to sanitary restrictions” also had an impact on the quarter’s figure compared with last year, the bank added. Chilean President Sebastian Pinera told reporters later on Wednesday that the country’s stimulus and social programs could not be “permanent” and would begin to taper down as the economy recovers. “From now on, we must normalize our fiscal policy and move toward the recovery of macroeconomic balances,” Pinera said. Chile’s sprawling mining sector, which largely maintained output during 2020, grew just 2.8% in the second quarter versus the previous year, the bank said, while the economy’s non-mining activity grew 20.2%. GDP in Chile grew across the board, with strong growth in education and health services, trade and, to a lesser extent, manufacturing, the bank said. (Reporting by Fabian Cambero; Writing by Aislinn Laing and Dave Sherwood; Editing by Paul Simao and Peter Cooney) Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.