Editing Economy of Chile (section)

==Issues==
Unemployment hovered at 8–10% after the start of the economic slowdown in 1999, above the 7% average for the 1990s. Unemployment finally dipped to 7.8% in 2006, and continued to fall in 2007, averaging 6.8% monthly (up to August).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://si2.bcentral.cl/Basededatoseconomicos/951_417.asp?m=EMP03&f=M&i=E|title=Chilean Central Bank|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110513104129/http://si2.bcentral.cl/Basededatoseconomicos/951_417.asp?m=EMP03&f=M&i=E|archive-date=13 May 2011}}</ref> Wages have risen faster than inflation as a result of higher productivity, boosting national [[standard of living|living standards]]. The percentage of Chileans with household incomes below the poverty line – defined as twice the cost of satisfying a person's minimal nutritional needs – fell from 45.1% in 1987 to 11.7% in 2015, according to government polls.<ref name="auto">{{cite web|url=http://observatorio.ministeriodesarrollosocial.gob.cl/casen-multidimensional/casen/docs/CASEN_2015_Situacion_Pobreza.pdf|work=Ministerio de Desarrollo Social|title=Casen 2015, Situación de la pobreza en Chile|access-date=11 November 2017|date=22 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180403135548/http://observatorio.ministeriodesarrollosocial.gob.cl/casen-multidimensional/casen/docs/CASEN_2015_Situacion_Pobreza.pdf|archive-date=3 April 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref> Critics in Chile, however, argue that poverty figures are considerably higher than those officially published; until 2016, the government defined the poverty line based on an outdated 1987 household consumption poll, instead of more recent polls from 1997 or 2007. According to critics who use data from the 1997 poll, the poverty rate goes up to 29%; a study published in 2017 claims that it reaches 26%.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.economiaynegocios.cl/noticias/noticias.asp?id=35048|newspaper=El Mercurio|title=Una muy necesaria corrección: Hay cuatro millones de pobres en Chile|date=14 October 2007|access-date=22 October 2007}}</ref> Using the relative yardstick favoured in many European countries, 27% of Chileans would be poor, according to Juan Carlos Feres of the [[ECLAC]].<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Economist|title=Destitute no more|url=http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9645174|access-date=22 October 2007|date=16 August 2007}} {{Subscription required}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|publisher=El Mostrador|title=Estudio de Fundación Sol revela que la pobreza en Chile superaría el 26%, más del doble de las cifras oficiales|url=http://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/pais/2017/07/31/estudio-de-fundacion-sol-revela-que-la-pobreza-en-chile-superaria-el-26-mas-del-doble-de-las-cifras-oficiales/|access-date=11 November 2017|date=31 July 2017|archive-date=11 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171111204714/http://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/pais/2017/07/31/estudio-de-fundacion-sol-revela-que-la-pobreza-en-chile-superaria-el-26-mas-del-doble-de-las-cifras-oficiales/|url-status=dead}}</ref> Starting in 2016, a new [[Multidimensional Poverty Index]] is also used, which reached 20.9% using 2015 data.<ref name="auto"/>

The percent of total income earned by the richest 20% of the Chilean population in 2000 was 61.0% of GDP, while the percent of total income earned by the poorest 20% of the Chilean population was 3.3% of GDP.<ref name=ECO>{{cite web |url=http://earthtrends.wri.org/pdf_library/country_profiles/eco_cou_152.pdf |title=eco_cou_152.xls |access-date=31 January 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090419212152/http://earthtrends.wri.org/pdf_library/country_profiles/eco_cou_152.pdf |archive-date=19 April 2009 }}</ref> Chile's [[Gini Coefficient]] in 2003 (53.8) has slightly changed in comparison with the value in 1995 (56.4). In 2005 the 10% poorest among the Chileans received 1.2% of [[GNP]] (2000 = 1.4%), while the 10% richest received 47% of [[GNP]] (2000 = 46%).<ref name=EC>{{cite web |url=http://ec.europa.eu/external_relations/chile/csp/07_13_en.pdf |title=Document of Strategy Chile |access-date=31 January 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081219145045/http://ec.europa.eu/external_relations/chile/csp/07_13_en.pdf |archive-date=19 December 2008 }}</ref>

Regarding the census, assessments have exhibited mixed results. An initial evaluation by a domestic independent experts panel released in August 2013 placed the omission rate in 9.3%, three times as much as other census in the region, and recommended annulling the census to hold a new version in 2015.<ref>[https://archive.today/20131220211819/http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2013-08-07/chile-commission-recommends-scrapping-census Eva Vergara, "Chile commission recommends scrapping 2012 census".] BloombergBussinessweek News (AP), 7 August 2013.</ref> The government sought an assessment by international experts before making a final decision.<ref name="survey" /> The team, which included three experts that represented the World Bank and the E.U. Statistics Commission, found "no basis for doubting the usability of the census data for most, if perhaps not all, of the customary uses" and recommended its release subject to the elimination of the imputation of housing units not observed on thBy 2021, the combined wealth of Chile's billionaires represented 16.1% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP

Historians generally explain the origin of the social gap by tracing it back to colonial times, when most land was divided between Spaniards and their descendants. This gave rise to the hacienda, in which society was divided between owners, employees, tenants and workers. Since this agrarian inequality, the concentration of wealth has spread to other economic sectors that exploit natural resources, such as mining. In more recent history, social inequality deepened in the 1970s and 1980s under Augusto Pinochet's regime, with the privatization of public enterprises in favor of large family fortunes, the repression of trade unions and the rejection of the welfare state. As social mobility is very low in Chile, social status is passed down from generation to generation.e ground during the enumeration and the concurrent publication of a methodological and administrative report.<ref>[http://santiagotimes.cl/experts-deem-flawed-2012-census-useable-bachelet-disagrees/ Katie Steefel, "Experts deem flawed 2012 Census useable, Bachelet disagrees".] The Santiago Times, 22 November 2013. {{Dead link|date=February 2023}}</ref><ref>[http://www.ine.cl/filenews/files/2013/noviembre/informe-final-censo2012-eng.pdf Roberto Bianchini, Griffith Feeney and Rajendra Singh, "Report of the International Commission on the 2012 Population and Housing Census of Chile".] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131206100537/http://www.ine.cl/filenews/files/2013/noviembre/informe-final-censo2012-eng.pdf |date=6 December 2013 }} National Statistics Institute (INE) website, 22 November 2013.</ref>