Economy of Chile
|
|
| Currency | Chilean peso (CLP) |
|---|---|
| calendar year | |
|
Trade organisations
|
WTO, APEC, OECD, Mercosur (associate), CAN (associate), SACN |
| Statistics | |
| GDP | $258.0 billion (2014, nominal; 37th) $409.3 billion (2014, PPP; 43rd) |
|
GDP growth
|
 2,9% (2016) |
|
GDP per capita
|
$14,047 (2014, nominal; 49th) $23,336 (2014, PPP; 53rd) |
|
GDP by sector
|
agriculture: 5.1%, industry: 41.8%, services: 53.1% (2010 est.) |
| 3,3% (2016, average) | |
|
Population below poverty line
|
11,7% (2015) |
| 0,509 (2013) | |
|
Labour force
|
8.3 million (2013) |
|
Labour force by occupation
|
agriculture: 13.2%, industry: 23%, services: 63.9% (2005) |
| Unemployment | 6.9% (2016) |
| $7,617 (2012, PPP) | |
|
Main industries
|
copper, lithium, other minerals, foodstuffs, fish processing, iron and steel, wood and wood products, transport equipment, cement, textiles |
| 57th (2017) | |
| External | |
| Exports | $76.98 billion fob (2014, goods) |
|
Export goods
|
copper, 53.6% grapes and other produce, 8.4% chemicals, 5.0% fish and seafood, 4.5% paper and pulp, 3.3% wine, 2.4% lumber, 2.2% gold, 2.1% (2014) |
|
Main export partners
|
 China 24.9% United States 12.8% Japan 9.9% Brazil 5.8% South Korea 5.5% (2014) |
| Imports | $70.67 billion fob (2014, goods) |
|
Import goods
|
machinery, 21.9% petroleum, 17.5% transport equipment and parts, 16.3% chemicals, 7.7% steel and other metals, 5.2% plastic and rubber, 5.1% textiles, 5.0% foodstuffs, 3.1% natural gas, 2.7% (2014) |
|
Main import partners
|
United States 20.3% China 19.7% Brazil 6.5% Argentina 5.0% Germany 4.0% (2014) |
|
FDI stock
|
$204 billion (2014) |
|
Gross external debt
|
$140 billion (2014) |
| Public finances | |
| 16.5% of GDP – $42.6 billion (2014, central government, gross) | |
| –2.1% of GDP (2014) | |
| Revenues | $50.67 billion (2014) |
| Expenses | $56.32 billion (2014) |
| AA- (Standard & Poor's) Aa3 (Moody's) A+ (Fitch Ratings) |
|
|
Foreign reserves
|
$41.979 billion (2011, net) |
The economy of Chile is ranked as a high-income economy by the World Bank, and is considered one of South America's most stable and prosperous nations, leading Latin American nations in competitiveness, income per capita, globalization, economic freedom, and low perception of corruption. Although Chile has high economic inequality, as measured by the Gini index, it is close to the regional mean.
In 2006, Chile became the country with the highest nominal GDP per capita in Latin America. In May 2010 Chile became the first South American country to join the OECD. Tax revenues, all together 20.2% of GDP in 2013, were the second lowest among the 34 OECD countries, and the lowest in 2010. Chile has an inequality-adjusted human development index of 0.661, compared to 0.662, 0.680 and 0.542 for neighboring Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil, respectively. In 2008, only 2.7% of the population lived on less than US $2 a day.
The Global Competitiveness Report for 2009–2010 ranked Chile as being the 30th most competitive country in the world and the first in Latin America, well above Brazil (56th), Mexico (60th), and Argentina which ranks 85th; it has since fallen out of the top 30. The ease of doing business index, created by the World Bank, listed Chile as 34th in the world as of 2014, 41st for 2015, and 48th as of 2016.The privatized national pension system (AFP) has encouraged domestic investment and contributed to an estimated total domestic savings rate of approximately 21% of GDP.
After Spanish arrival in the 15th century Chilean economy came to revolve around autarchy estates called fundos and around the army that was engaged in the Arauco War. During early colonial times there were gold exports to Perú from placer deposits which soon depleted. Trade restrictions and monopolies established by the Spanish crown are credited for having held back economic development for much of the colonial times. As effect of these restrictions the country incorporated very few new crops and animal breeds after initial conquest. Other sectors that were held back by restrictions were the wine and mining industries. The Bourbon reforms in the 18th century eased many monopolies and trade restrictions.
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Wikipedia