MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chilean president rejects a chronic dole claimers system; mentions the Argentine example

President Boric warned about standing support measures, “short term gain but long term pain”

Chilean president Gabriel Boric did not have kind words for Argentina's social relief policy when explaining how his administration was going to address support policies in the post-pandemic period and current global war situation, propping the economy and creating jobs.

“Here in Chile we can't expect that the solutions to the structural inequality problems of the Chilean society can be solved by direct transfers, because that is simply a short term gain but a long term pain” said the president when asked about the “Chile Supports YOU” plan his government has started to implement with a bonus, frozen transport rates and contention of fuel prices lowering taxes and a support fund.

President Goric mentioned some of the measures Chile endorsed during the pandemic such as Family Emergency Income for Families, and allowing the several withdrawal of savings from the old pensions' scheme.

“Back in 2020 when we supported a package of measures for families, it was because of the sanitary precautions to address the pandemic, such as limiting displacements, and thus the need ti give families a universal support”

But this is not sustainable over time and “countries that act irresponsibly in fiscal terms, end up broke, and hurting even more the majority of the population, the vulnerable majority”, and in this “we must be very precise not everybody to the same bag. When government social supports become chronic, as has happened in many neighboring countries, they end up distorting the economy, and punishing even harder the population, the community...”

“I recently visited our brotherly country Argentina, where the salaries of the workers in the formal economy had jumped 74% in the last month, with inflation at 70%, and climbing, and two thirds of the economy informal. So that means that at some point we must stop: when we delivered universal support and allowed pension funds withdrawals, we must act responsibly and at some point must stop and address the structural challenges”.

“What is needed is a strong jobs market, target structural changes in the development model, we must certainly support the middle class, and those most in need with for example a protected basic food basket, focalized subsidies to specific productive areas which have been relegated, such as the tourism industry, and improve the financial framework so that small and medium companies can have more flexibility in honoring debts and access to financing and markets”

Boric also mentioned some of the short term measures in the pipeline such as the minimum living salary, the protected basic food basket, containing the price of fuels, “so please don't ask me to make Chileans chronic dole receivers”