These quick-response articles analyse key events in terms of how we expect them to affect our political and economic forecast, and are closely tied to the structure of our Country Report service.
The president, Michelle Bachelet, will struggle with low approval ratings, and will modify some reform proposals, including labour-market reform, to facilitate passage. Growth will pick up only slowly to 2.6% in 2016, and will average 4% by 2017-20, but will remain tepid relative to the commodity boom years. Inflation is set to fall within the 2-4% target range, and medium-term expectations will converge towards 3%. Low oil prices will help to keep the current-account deficit manageable.