After our Skype meeting with Courtney Kingston, I got interest in learning more about the most stable and prosperous economy in South America. To be specific, I looked into the foreign trade in Chile.
In 2013, Chile exported $79.4B and imported $77.9B, resulting in a positive trade balance of $1.52B. In 2013 the GDP of Chile was $277B and its GDP per capita was $21.9k. The top exports of Chile are refined copper($19B), copper ore ($17.5B), raw copper($3.58B), sulfate chemical woodpulp($2.93B) and fish fillets($2.21B). The top export destinations of Chile are China($19.3B), the United States($10.3B), Japan($7.75B), Brazil($4.41B) and South Korea($4.4B).
Chile's economy is highly dependent on copper exports, which account for over 50% of total exports. In addition sales to China represented a quarter of exports more than any other country in the world. We may conclude that Chile's economy actually relies on only one commodity and one major market. What's worse, China buys about 50% of Chile's copper in 2015! I cannot help asking what is Chile's strategy for maintaining a stable economy since China's growth is slowing down and the copper prices has been experiencing a significant decline over the past several years. However, it is interesting to mention that the 10 years' China-Chile Free Trade Agreement will expire in October 2016. We will see what agreement they will reach for another 10 years.
Source:
http://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/chl/#Exports
In 2013, Chile exported $79.4B and imported $77.9B, resulting in a positive trade balance of $1.52B. In 2013 the GDP of Chile was $277B and its GDP per capita was $21.9k. The top exports of Chile are refined copper($19B), copper ore ($17.5B), raw copper($3.58B), sulfate chemical woodpulp($2.93B) and fish fillets($2.21B). The top export destinations of Chile are China($19.3B), the United States($10.3B), Japan($7.75B), Brazil($4.41B) and South Korea($4.4B).
Chile's economy is highly dependent on copper exports, which account for over 50% of total exports. In addition sales to China represented a quarter of exports more than any other country in the world. We may conclude that Chile's economy actually relies on only one commodity and one major market. What's worse, China buys about 50% of Chile's copper in 2015! I cannot help asking what is Chile's strategy for maintaining a stable economy since China's growth is slowing down and the copper prices has been experiencing a significant decline over the past several years. However, it is interesting to mention that the 10 years' China-Chile Free Trade Agreement will expire in October 2016. We will see what agreement they will reach for another 10 years.
Source:
http://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/chl/#Exports