Estimated investment in Chile reached a total of US$130 billion during 2010, including US$42.7 billion in potential investments. This total marks a rise of 16% from 2009, according to Sofofa. Last year’s figures are the highest in five years.
The Chilean Army is currently clearing four fields planted with anti-personnel mines in Tierra del Fuego and will move to another four once the job is finalized, reported the Commander Gonzalo Echeverria, from the 5th Engineers Battalion seated in Punta Arenas.
Humpback whales, once hunted nearly to extinction, started returning to Chilean seas in the 1990s. By 2003 so many had appeared that Chile created a protected coastal area, Francisco Coloane with marine park in it to assure the whales would have the nutrients they need to thrive.
Leading figures in Chile’s government were caught up in conflict of interest charges this week, with opposition Dep. Enrique Accorsi accusing President Sebastián Piñera and several of his cabinet ministers of “serious conflicts of interest” when they gave a green light to the Mina Invierno coal mine on Isla Riesco.
Chile is studying supplying neighbouring Argentina with electricity during the southern hemisphere's summer, when demand spikes, daily newspaper La Tercera reported Wednesday.
The Chilean Navy icebreaker is scheduled to be decommissioned in four years time so “we are in the task of considering a replacement” revealed Third Naval Zone Commander Rear Admiral Rafael Gonzalez during a press conference in Punta Arenas to review results of the last Antarctic season.
Petrobras, Brazil’s state-controlled oil producer will export its first cargo from the country’s second-largest crude field to Chile in mid-May.
In 2005, with Chile negotiating a Free Trade Agreement with China, the United States became increasingly worried over China’s influence in the area, according to a confidential cable released last week by Wikileaks.
The Central Bank of Chile (CBC) hiked interest rates by 50bps to 4.5% on Wednesday but with the near-term outlook for growth very good and inflation likely to top 5% in Q4, further policy tightening is on the way, reports Capital Economics that estimates rates to reach 6% by year-end.
The number of gun owners has decreased over the past year in Chile from 5.3% to 4.9%. Yet one economic sector—the wealthiest Chileans from the socioeconomic level ABC1—continue to buy firearms at an escalating rate.