Whilst suffering from shrinking export markets, led by the all important 20% supply of global copper, a shrinking economy & climbing unemployment; Chile continues to buck global trends, with ratings agency, Moody’s Investors Service making it the first investment- grade country to be awarded a higher credit rating this year. The South American country’s $22 billion of savings in wealth funds has put it in a position to recover more quickly from the global credit crisis than other, similarly rated nations, Moody’s said yesterday in raising Chile’s foreign debt to A1 from A2 with a positive outlook.

This has been the result of a canny economic long game by President Michelle Bachelet, while near neighbours have splashed out on the commodities boom over the last decade, Chile has followed a prudent path of pumpingprofits from state owned copper giant Codelco into soverign funds, providing the nation with a $22Bn cushion against global turmoil. That cushion is equal to roughly 13% of Chile’s GDP ($154Bn), so Chile looks as thought it should weather the storms of 2009 quite nicely.

 

More from this article at MyStockVoice