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Excerpts
Background Note
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Early History
Chile in its modern form emerged after the Spanish invasion of 1536. The Spanish did not find much gold or silver in the country. So, they decided to use the local population as cheap labour. In the absence of any strong policy initiative, the country remained undeveloped...
Chile under Pinochet
Pinochet quickly took control. He imposed a state of emergency. He also abolished political parties and imposed a ban on strikes and collective bargaining by labor unions. Tariffs were cut and nationalized companies were returned to the main private owners...
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Recent Developments
In 1988, Pinochet relinquished power, following a plebiscite. A democratic Presidential election was subsequently held in December 1989, when Patricio Aylwin, the candidate of the centre-left Concertacion coalition, was elected President for four years...
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Economic Policies
After the Asian crisis of 1998, economic growth
slowed down and resulted in the first recession in 17 years. The economy
recovered to grow by 4.4% in 2000, thanks to buoyant exports. In 2001,
GDP grew by 2.8% and in 2002 by 2.2%. The unemployment rate, which was
9% in 2001, declined to 8.3% in February 2002, but was expected to rise
again...
Human Resources
Chile's population was young but aging. Population growth had slowed from 2% in the 1960s to 1.3% by the early 2000s . The proportion of people aged over 65 rose from 4.3% in 1960 to 6.9% in 1998. It was expected to increase to 9.7% by 2015... |
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