Social spending also helped to cushion the unequal distribution of income that exists between the richest and poorest fifths of the population. Despite the impact of the external crisis, the 1999 budget is 2.8 percent above over the previous year's and includes a pension increase that will benefit 1,380,000 people. The remaining items have been reduced by 4.6 percent, particularly public investment. The increase in social spending this year again concentrates on social security, education and health. Funds for society's most vulnerable groups and the unemployed will also rise, and investment programs will be made more flexible so they have a stronger impact on employment.
Educational spending is the government's central priority.
It rose 41 percent over 1998, with most of the spending going to creating, improving and maintaining the infrastructure necessary to support the educational reform program. Change for the Better During the recent years of democratic governance, the country has changed more profoundly than during many other periods in its history. Today, Chile is very different from the country that restored its social harmony in 1990. The main obstacle to a path of equal opportunity growth are being addressed. The greatest changes in over a century are in motion in judicial system in an effort to establish a more dynamic criminal system and enhance public safety.