Chile seeks IMF line of credit of approximately $ 23.8 billion

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Chile calls on the IMF for help. The financial institution announced Tuesday that the country had requested a line of credit of more than 23 billion dollars, over a period of two years. Request that must be considered "in the coming weeks," says the Fund. It must be said that Chile, even before the appearance of the coronavirus, was already shaken by a strong social protest linked to economic inequalities in the country.

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With more than $ 20,000 a year, Chile has the highest average per capita income in Latin America. But it also has the most inequalities, with differences more than 65% above the average of the OECD countries, the richest in the world, according to an OECD analysis dating from 2018.

Only about twenty families make up the wealthiest class. The rest of the population undergoes an ultra-liberal system inherited from the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, in the 1970s and 80s, notably with a fully individualized funded pension scheme: most pensions are lower than the minimum wage, while private pension funds accumulate huge profits.

Chileans depend, on a daily basis, on credits which cause debt situations. And not only to buy material goods: to study, young Chileans often have to take out heavy loans.

As for the privatized health system, it covers only 60% of medical costs. The drugs in Chile are the most expensive in the region.

Last October, a major social crisis arose from the increase in the metro ticket and electricity prices.

These inequalities are at the origin of sometimes dramatic situations, and which the crisis linked to the coronavirus only reinforces.

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• Chile
• Economic crisis
• Coronavirus

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