Description

It is a great pleasure to be in Santiago again. There could not be a better location for a conference on natural resources and growth. Chile – like many countries in Latin America – has had to contend with the “commodity lottery” for many decades. In recent years, Chile has also established for itself a well-deserved reputation as a leader among emerging economies in the design and adaptation of sensible economic policies, which has enhanced the use of these resources as a basis for growth. The results speak for themselves: strong growth through much of the 1990s, and resilience in the face of the current difficult external environment. This suggests that, while natural resources present challenges, they also can –with good economic management– become an opportunity by providing the income to finance investments in a country’s true vital resource – its human capital – and in the physical capital that makes people more productive. For this presentation, I will leave the topic of natural resources aside and focus briefly instead on two issues that have an important bearing on Chile’s growth prospects, in particular, and for Latin America more broadly. The first topic is the external environment, specifically the world economy and its prospects for the coming year. The second topic reforms to the progress of economic reform in the region. I believe both topics give us cause for cautious optimism, but no complacency.