Chile Covid Response: Mañalich Out, Stimulus Agreement In.

CHILE - In Brief 15 Jun 2020 by Robert Funk

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After a fairly reasonable start, Chile is now one of the world’s most affected countries by Covid-19. Chile is now number three in the world for new cases of coronavirus, and number six in cases per million. The mishandling of the pandemic has now cost Health Minister Jamie Mañalich his job. President Sebastián Piñera held on as long as he could, but the rising number of infected and dead Chileans was too much to ignore. The straw that broke the camel’s back was a report that emerged last Saturday morning stating that Mañalich was giving Chileans lower figures of dead and infected than he was submitting to the WHO. A few hours later, he was out, replaced by Enrique Paris, a pediatrician and former president of the College of Physicians who participated as a health advisor in the Piñera campaign.In Latin America the pandemic is not accompanied by an economic crisis – the two go hand in hand. Although roughly thirty percent of the population has been under strict quarantine for over a month, many Chileans are not complying, as they feel the need to go out and earn a living. Savings are non-existent and government help so far has been insufficient. For this reason, the pressure on the political class to increase both direct transfers and business aid been enormous, and after an intense few days of negotiation, government and opposition parties reached an agreement late last Friday.The main elements of the agreement are:A USD$12bn package over the next two years, to be financed through a dedicated fund, financed through the public purse, debt and sovereign funds.Transfers via the Special Family Income program will be increased to $USD125 per person for the next three month...