Economy of Chile

The economy of Chile is ranked as an upper-middle income economy by the World Bank, and is one of South America's most stable and prosperous nations, leading Latin American nations in human development, competitiveness, income per capita, globalization, economic freedom, and low perception of corruption. However, it has a high economic inequality, as measured by the Gini index.

In May 2010 Chile became the first South American country to join the OECD. In 2006, Chile became the country with the highest nominal GDP per capita in Latin America. Chile has an inequality-adjusted human development index of 0.652, compared to 0.654, 0.641 and 0.519 for neighbouring Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil, respectively. 5.3% of the population lives on less than US $2 a day.

The Global Competitiveness Report for 2009-2010 ranks Chile as being the 30th most competitive country in the world and the first in Latin America, well above from Brazil (56th), Mexico (60th) and Argentina which ranks 85th. The Ease of doing business index created by the World Bank lists Chile as 43rd in the world that encompasses better, usually simpler, regulations for businesses and stronger protections of property rights. The privatized national pension system (AFP) has encouraged domestic investment and contributed to an estimated total domestic savings rate of approximately 21% of GDP. With the solidification of the industrial competitiveness in the 1990s and the opening to foreign direct investment with the kick-off of export-oriented economic strategy that hopes to eventually achieve market economy status for Chile, the term of Miracle of Chile is presented to describe the economic success of Chile to date and Chile is also a full Member of OECD and APEC and an ardent and active participant of signing FTA with major economies around the world.