A Tarnished Economy Awaits the Next Chilean Leader

For decades, Chile has thrived as one of Latin America's most politically stable and business-friendly places. Voters in the six presidential elections held since democracy was restored in 1990 have chosen leaders who have largely pursued policies promoting fiscal conservatism and open trade. Over the past three decades, Chile has signed more than 50 free trade agreements, the most in South America. However, continued low prices for copper, the country's most important export, have battered Chile's economy, creating conditions fueling increasing debt. The struggling economy will be only one of the issues that the country's next president, who will take office in March 2018, will inherit. A pair of major ongoing trade negotiations and the resolution of a border dispute with Bolivia at the International Court of Justice will also require the new leader's attention....