MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Forbes ranks Chile as tops in Latam in business

Forbes Magazine this week ranked Chile as the best Latin America country for doing business. Chile ranked 19th among all the world's countries, up nine notches compared to last year. Mexico ranked 43rd, Uruguay 44th.

Forbes used national economic indicators to rank nations in ten categories. Chile was among the leaders in protection of private property and for personal political freedoms. It ranked lowest in technology and innovation categories. Topped ranked countries were Denmark, followed by Ireland, Finland and the United States. Japan experienced one of the most noticeable drops, falling from 3rd to 28th. Forbes characterized Chile as a stable nation for business, with economic growth averaging between 2 and 6 percent from 2002 to 2007. It further praised Chile's low inflation rate and President Bachelet's 2006 Economic and Social Stabilization Fund. The fund retains excess profits from Chile's state-owned copper company for times of copper shortfalls. The magazine singled out Chile's free trade policies as especially "business friendly." Although Chile ranked 41st in this category, its borders are far more open than most of its Latin American neighbors: only Uruguay ranked higher than Chile in this category. In 2004, Chile began a free trade relationship with the United States. Today Chile is a member of 57 bilateral or regional trade agreements and claims to have more trade policies than any nation in the world. Forbes also highlighted improvements in Chile's unemployment. The unemployment rate fell from 7.8 percent to 7 percent between 2006 and 2007. Still, unemployment continues to be a problem for Chile: on Monday, the nation's Statistics Institute reported unemployment has increased to 8 percent this year. The Santiago Times