OECD Economic Surveys: Chile 2021

In the last decades, Chile has made tremendous progress towards greater economic prosperity and lower poverty. Per capita income more than doubled over the past 20 years and is now the highest in Latin America. These progresses have now come to a halt. Since October 2019 Chile has faced two unprecedented shocks, the social protests and the COVID 19 outbreak. Income convergence was already slowing before these shocks amid modest productivity growth and while the past growth performance has lifted many Chileans out of poverty over the last three decades, income inequality remains high by OECD standards. However, such unprecedented times gives the opportunity to create consensus among citizens around major pending reforms, strengthen common values around the importance of having strong public services and the relevance of belonging to the formal sector. Achieving such economic and social improvements will require further progress toward reducing inequalities and building a stronger middle-class, raising productivity and the dynamism of SMEs, that will be especially impacted by the outbreak. Moreover, during the pandemic digital technologies are being critical to sustain continuity in business and jobs. Digitalisation will play an ever important role in the recovery, while addressing the persistent low productivity. SPECIAL FEATURE: DIGITALISATION, PRODUCTIVITY AND SKILLS