Chile

Prior to the coming of the Spanish in the 16th century, northern Chile was under Inca rule while the indigenous Mapuche inhabited central and southern Chile. Although Chile declared its independence in 1810, decisive victory over the Spanish was not achieved until 1818. In the War of the Pacific (1879-83), Chile defeated Peru and Bolivia and won its present northern regions. It was not until the 1880s that the Mapuche Indians were completely subjugated. After a series of elected governments, a three-year-old Marxist government of Salvador ALLENDE was overthrown in 1973 by a military coup led by Augusto PINOCHET, who ruled until a freely elected president was installed in 1990. Sound economic policies, maintained consistently since the 1980s, have contributed to steady growth, reduced poverty rates by over half, and have helped secure the country's commitment to democratic and representative government. Chile has increasingly assumed regional and international leadership roles befitting its status as a stable, democratic nation.
==Economical characteristics==
* Currency: Peso (ISO code: CLP)
* Central bank discount rate: 8.25% (31 December 2008)
* Commercial banks lending rate: 13.26% (31 December 2008)
* Stock of money (M1): $14.72 billion (31 December 2008)
* Quasi money (with M1 makes M2): $73.66 billion (31 December 2008)
===Statistics===
Statistic / Year 	1999 	2000 	2001 	2002 	2003 	2004 	2005 	2006 	2007 	2008
GDP (million USD)World Bank. "Chile: GDP", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-28. 	72 995	75 211	68 568	67 265	73 990	95 653	118 250	146 773	163 878	169 458
Govt. debt (% of GDP)World Bank. "Chile: government debt", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-28. 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
Govt. revenue (% of GDP)World Bank. "Chile: government revenue", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-28. 	 	21.626	21.734	21.084	20.687	22.004	23.785 	25.775 	27.486 	25.977
Govt. expenses (% of GDP)World Bank. "Chile: government expenses", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-28.	 	20.953	20.920	20.998	19.995	18.861	18.149 	16.997 	17.285 	19.677
Debt to revenue (years) 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
==References==
Note: statistical data was rounded. Different sources may use different methodologies for their estimates. Debt to revenue is calculated by dividing the two variables from their original ('unrounded') values. It represents how long it would a government take to repay its entire debt if it used its whole revenue for this purpose.
==External links==
* Chile on Wikipedia
* Central bank of Chile
* Country profile (pdf) from the Enterprise Studies page (part of the The World Bank Group)
* Studies from the Library of Congress (1986-1998)
* BBC country profile
Category:Countries