Natural hazards:
severe earthquakes; active volcanism; tsunamis
GDP (purchasing power parity):
$232.8 billion (2007 est.)
Unemployment rate:
7% (2007 est.)
Exchange rates:
Chilean pesos (CLP) per US dollar - 526.25 (2007)
Population:
16,454,143 (July 2008 est.)
Internet users:
5.57 million (2007)
Disputes - international:
Chile and Peru rebuff Bolivia's reinvigorated claim to restore the Atacama corridor, ceded to Chile in 1884, but Chile has offered instead unrestricted but not sovereign maritime access through Chile to Bolivian gas and other commodities; Chile rejects Peru's unilateral legislation to change its latitudinal maritime boundary with Chile to an equidistance line with a southwestern axis favoring Peru, in October 2007, Peru took its maritime complaint with Chile to the ICJ; territorial claim in Antarctica (Chilean Antarctic Territory) partially overlaps Argentine and British claims; the joint boundary commission, established by Chile and Argentina in 2001, has yet to map and demarcate the delimited boundary in the inhospitable Andean Southern Ice Field (Campo de Hielo Sur)
Illicit drugs:
transshipment country for cocaine destined for Europe and the region; economic prosperity and increasing trade have made Chile more attractive to traffickers seeking to launder drug profits, especially through the Iquique Free Trade Zone, but a recent anti-money-laundering law improves controls; imported precursors passed on to Bolivia; domestic cocaine consumption is rising, making Chile a significant consumer of cocaine
Presidente Michelle Bachelet Jeria