Weekly Report - 15 October 2015 (WR-15-41)

The Chilean government presented its draft 2016 budget to congress last week, and it was not a good news story: amid global economic weakness and depressed copper prices, the finance minister, Rodrigo Valdés, said government spending will have to expand more slowly next year; the official forecast for GDP growth in 2016 has also been cut once more (down to 2.75%). Yet at the same time there are signs that President Michelle Bachelet’s long fall in the opinion polls, if not reversing, may at least be bottoming out.