Saturday, October 26, 2013

CHILE, A SUCCESS STORY:

Chile is definitely a success story of the last systemic transformation. After going through economic, political and social change since the mid-1970s, the country now has one of the most liberal, open, and market-based economies in Latin America. According to the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean an average GDP per capita growth between 2000-2007 (3.2%) was higher than those of Argentina (2.5%), Mexico (2%), and Brazil (1.9%). In 2012 Chile economy grew at 5.6% (mainly due to the expansion of the business services, commerce, construction, personal services and manufacturing). The Economist Intelligence Unit expects Chile to grow on average 4.8% per year in 2013-17, given the strong levels of private consumption and investment. Chile is also a pioneer in the regions in terms of number of the Free Trade Agreements. As of 2013 it has 22 FTAs with 60 countries in the world (even more than Mexico which is four times bigger in terms of the GDP), with access to 4.2 billion consumers. In the near future Chile is expected to expand its FTAs network to i.e. Vietnam, and Hong Kong. It also negotiates the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Pacific Alliance.