translated from Spanish: President Piñera presented Budget 2021 for a total expenditure of $73 billion

Through a national chain, President Sebastián Piñera presented the main points on which the 2021 Budget will focus, which will have to be discussed by Congress next October. At the beginning of his speech, the representative spoke about the effects of the pandemic on national enconomy, as well as listing the measures taken from the Executive. “The 2021 budget will be the employment budget,” he said, detailing that it is $73 billion, which means 9.5% growth over this year and 14.9% more public spending. According to the representative, this seeks to “get jobs back,” as planning “takes care of the heartfelt priorities and needs of families,” including “additional resources to further combat the pandemic and acquire effective and effective vaccines.” In this regard, he alluded to investments in primary health with the construction of hospitals, offices, training of specialists and reinforcement of mental health. On equal rights between men and women, it is proposed to increase by 36% to finance support for women’s programmes. For older adults, resources would grow by 7.2% compared to this year, while for boys and girls, Piñera addressed sename replacement. In the area of SMEs, a special fund of $120 million was established, which, among other objectives, hopes to “boost its digitization and technology”, as well as “market access”. The budget also includes Housing and Public Order projects. This includes additional citizen security resources, in addition to the modernization of personnel of the institutions, including “resources for the participation of municipalities, social organizations and civil society”. At the end, Piñera addressed the outstanding tasks of climate change, and the need for the country to move to be “carbon neutral”. And with this, he closed by ensuring that this is a “very austere budget with expenditures that move away from people’s needs,” but urged that he is “generous with the resources to meet the needs of Chilean families,” adding that “public debt must tend to stabilize.”

Original source in Spanish