Weekly Report - 04 February 2016 (WR-16-05)

President Michelle Bachelet this week promulgated a law simplifying her landmark tax reform passed in 2014 aimed at raising annual government revenues equivalent to 3% of GDP in order to fund health and education reforms. While Bachelet trumpeted the changes as part of efforts to improve implementation of the tax reform, which raised the corporate tax rate and ended some tax exemptions, her centre-left Nueva Mayoría coalition government continues to struggle vis-à-vis a slowing economy stemming in part from the ongoing slump in international commodity prices.