Some facts about the Chilean economy
- Chile’s economy is considered the most open in the world, the country has the highest GDP in South America ($25,978 PPP), and since 1990 poverty has dropped from 38.6 percent to 7.8 percent;
- Chile has a Gini Index of 47.7—the worst of any APEC country, and higher than any country outside Latin America and Africa;
- Private companies provide public services ranging from water and electricity to health insurance and pension-fund administration;
- Chileans spend 40 percent of their income in markets without any real competition. For example, the beer, tobacco, and domestic air travel markets are each dominated by a single company;
- Nearly one-third of the labor force is either self-employed or works in domestic service, in many cases without a formal contract and benefits;
- Half of all Chilean workers are making $550 or less every month. Most Chilean pensioners receive $200-$300 per month in a country whose price level is about 80% of that of the United States.
How Economic Concentration and Crony Capitalism Led to the Chaos in Chile
By: Daniel Matamala – University of Chicago
Extreme inequality
Chile is the country where billionaires’ share, in terms of GDP, is the highest in the world (if we exclude countries like Lebanon and Cyprus where many foreign billionaires simply “park” their wealth for tax reasons). The wealth of Chile’s billionaires, compared to their country’s GDP, exceeds even that of Russians.
Chile: The poster boy of neoliberalism who fell from grace
By: Branko Milanovic – CUNY
What triggered the riots?
Andres Velasco, who was finance minister of Chile from 2006 to 2010, argues that inequality, monopoly power, lack of good jobs have been plaguing the Chilean economy for quite some time now and therefore cannot be what prompted the recent riots. Instead, he adds, what is relatively new is scorn for the country’s political class caused by a wave of financial scandals. Lack of trust in politicians weakens people’s hopes for the future, especially now that Chile’s recent is decelerating.
Santiago Under Siege
By: Andres Velasco – LSE
