Kathleen C. Barclay, former president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Chile: “Chile faces a challenging economic scenario with inflation running just over 10 percent and with slowing growth and investment. Inflation has proven to be difficult to control due to internal pressures resulting from large injections of funds from ongoing government support programs related to the pandemic, as well as several congressionally approved withdrawals from the private pension system and external factors including rising prices of food and fuel. Mortgage payments for Chileans have increased between 25 percent and 30 percent because of higher interest rates and the inflation-indexed nature of mortgage lending in Chile. Sectors such as services—particularly those associated with technology—continue to do well, as individuals and companies move to more hybrid operations to meet workers’ demands and to improve productivity. Retail benefits, for the moment, from funds accumulated from government subsidies and the tail end of the cash withdrawals from the private pension system. For more capital-intensive industries, investment is slowing, reflecting…”