Country Overview
Chile's strong performance in procurement and permit rules is largely underpinned by its transparent procurement processes and its low cost to start a business. Combined with a strong rule of law and robust financial market performance driven by its financial stability, Chile outperforms its peers in the Americas on many infrastructure drivers. To increase its efficiency during the planning and procurement process, Chile could publish a national infrastructure plan, conduct market soundings and assessments and publish procurement guidelines.
See Full Overview Data
GDP per capita
16,065 USD
Population
19.7 million persons
Infrastructure quality
76.3 (0-100 best)
Infrastructure investment
2.7% of GDP
Infrastructure gap
0.6% of GDP

Driver Overview

This section shows a country’s rank, ranking change and score for each of the eight drivers. It also categorises each country’s driver performance on a scale from “Emerging” (score from 0-20) to “Global Leader” (score from 80-100).

Driver
Rank
Score /100
Emerging Aspiring Contender Top performer Global Leader
- No ranking change Ranking increase Ranking decrease

Rank

Score /100

Best practice

26
1
63.3
Top performer
14
1
72.6
Global Leader
37
3
73.7
Contender
54
4
54.0
Aspiring
7
5
93.5
Global Leader
11
5
53.5
Global Leader
24
1
52.1
Top performer
19
1
53.5
Top performer

Metric Overview

Strengths

Transparency in public procurement

Chile's public procurement notices are made available online and tender documents transparently detail procurement procedures. The transparency of the process encourages more participation and competition, which drive value for money.

Cost to start a business

According to the World Bank, the average cost of starting a business is 2.7% of income per capita in 2019, down from 5.9% in 2018. This is the primary driver in Chile’s improved performance over the period and eases the entry of new firms.

Financial stability

Chile ranks third for financial stability among all InfraCompass 2020 countries, outperforming all countries except Canada and Finland. A stable financial market improves the supply of capital by facilitating the smooth flow of funds between infrastructure assets and investors.

Transparency in public procurement

Chile's public procurement notices are made available online and tender documents transparently detail procurement procedures. The transparency of the process encourages more participation and competition, which drive value for money.

Cost to start a business

According to the World Bank, the average cost of starting a business is 2.7% of income per capita in 2019, down from 5.9% in 2018. This is the primary driver in Chile’s improved performance over the period and eases the entry of new firms.

Financial stability

Chile ranks third for financial stability among all InfraCompass 2020 countries, outperforming all countries except Canada and Finland. A stable financial market improves the supply of capital by facilitating the smooth flow of funds between infrastructure assets and investors.

Top Performing Metrics

Top Performing Metrics

This is defined by the metrics with the highest unweighted score out of 100. 

High income country average

Financial markets:
Financial stability

Opportunities to Grow

Published infrastructure plan

Chile does not have a national or sub-national infrastructure plan. The addition of an infrastructure plan could highlight infrastructure challenges and opportunities for investment, as well as detail the government's planned responses.

Market sounding and/or assessment

Chile currently lacks a market sounding process for infrastructure projects. Adding one could allow the government to better determine if there is interest from investors and lenders to provide commercial financing for projects.

Long term GDP growth trend

Chile’s long-term GDP growth trend has decreased to 3% in InfraCompass 2020, down from 3.8% in InfraCompass 2017. It remains above the High Income Countries’ average of 1.9%, suggesting some capacity to fund infrastructure from future growth. However, recent political events have dampened economic prospects and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are a concern.

Published infrastructure plan

Chile does not have a national or sub-national infrastructure plan. The addition of an infrastructure plan could highlight infrastructure challenges and opportunities for investment, as well as detail the government's planned responses.

Market sounding and/or assessment

Chile currently lacks a market sounding process for infrastructure projects. Adding one could allow the government to better determine if there is interest from investors and lenders to provide commercial financing for projects.

Long term GDP growth trend

Chile’s long-term GDP growth trend has decreased to 3% in InfraCompass 2020, down from 3.8% in InfraCompass 2017. It remains above the High Income Countries’ average of 1.9%, suggesting some capacity to fund infrastructure from future growth. However, recent political events have dampened economic prospects and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are a concern.

Metrics to Improve

Metrics to Improve

This is defined by the metrics with the lowest weighted score out of 100, such that these metrics would have the greatest impact on the overall score.

For metrics that have binary outcomes (yes=100/no=0), no comparative income group average is reported.

High income country average

Funding capacity:
Long term GDP growth trend

Detailed Data

This section shows country data for each of the 41 metrics. The figures in brackets denote the change in score since InfraCompass 2017. 

Note that all data has been normalised on a scale of 1-100. For raw metric data, please download the complete InfraCompass 2020 dataset. 

Where relevant, some metric scores have been inverted, such that all metrics have positive relationships with good infrastructure outcomes. For example, since lower compliance costs make it easier to invest in infrastructure, the normalised value of ‘number of procedures to start a business’ has been reversed such that lower number of procedures are scored closer to 100, and higher numbers closer to 0. In other words, a score of 0 indicates a poor performance, rather than 0 number of procedures.

Governance Regulatory Permits Planning Procurement Activity Funding Financial
Driver
Rank
Score /100
Emerging Aspiring Contender Top performer Global Leader
- No ranking change Ranking increase Ranking decrease

Metric

Chile

High Income Countries Average

Source Link

28.2%

Recovery rate

The recovery rate is recorded as cents on the dollar recovered by secured creditors through reorganisation, liquidation or debt enforcement (foreclosure or receivership) proceedings.

41.9 (+8.4)
68.3

20.7%

Rule of law

World Governance Composite Indicator reflecting perceptions of the extent to which agents have confidence in and abide by the rules of society, and in particular the quality of contract enforcement, property rights, the police, and the courts, as well as the likelihood of crime and violence. The rule of law reflects whether the law imposes limits of power on the state, private sector and individuals.

72.3 (-0.3)
74.3

18.1%

Post-completion reviews

Whether the country conducts post-completion reviews on infrastructure projects to ensure the forecast outcomes are being achieved.

Yes
-

15.1%

Shareholder governance

Measures the governance practices that protect shareholders through three dimensions: the extent of shareholder rights index (shareholders’ rights and role in major corporate decisions), the extent of ownership and control index (governance safeguards protecting shareholders from undue board control and entrenchment), and the extent of corporate transparency index (corporate transparency on ownership stakes).

40.0
48.1

12.8%

Political stability and absence of violence score

Measures perceptions of the likelihood of political instability and/or politically-motivated violence, including terrorism. Estimate gives the country's score on the aggregate indicator, in units of a standard normal distribution i.e. ranging from approximately -2.5 to 2.5.

57.1 (+0.2)
61.9

5%

Infrastructure or PPP agency

Whether an infrastructure agency exists to coordinate an integrated approach to infrastructure delivery and policy.

Yes
-

Chile

High Income Countries Average

41.9 (+8.4)
68.3
72.3 (-0.3)
74.3
Yes
-
40.0
48.1
57.1 (+0.2)
61.9
Yes
-

Country Overview Data

Chile's strong performance in procurement and permit rules is largely underpinned by its transparent procurement processes and its low cost to start a business. Combined with a strong rule of law and robust financial market performance driven by its financial stability, Chile outperforms its peers in the Americas on many infrastructure drivers. To increase its efficiency during the planning and procurement process, Chile could publish a national infrastructure plan, conduct market soundings and assessments and publish procurement guidelines.
GDP per capita

16,065 USD

Population

19.7 million persons

Infrastructure quality

76.3 (0-100 best)

Infrastructure investment

2.7% of GDP

Infrastructure gap

0.6% of GDP

GDP

294.2 USD billion

GDP growth rate

2.5%

GDP per capita growth rate

-3.2%

Gini coefficient

46.6 (0-100 worst)

Gross Government Debt

28.0% of GDP

Inflation rate

2.2%

Summary credit rating

78.0 (0-100 best)

Unemployment rate

7.4%

Urbanisation ratio

88.0% of total population

Road connectivity

95.8 (0-100 best)

Quality of road infrastructure

5.2 (1-7 best)

Efficiency of train services

3.2 (1-7 best)

Efficiency of air transport services

4.9 (1-7 best)

Efficiency of seaport services

4.9 (1-7 best)

Electricity access

100.0% of population

Electricity supply quality

3.6% of output lost

Exposure to unsafe drinking water

3.7% of population

Reliability of water supply

6.1 (1-7 best)

Digital Adoption Index

0.8 (0-1 best)

Mobile-broadband subscriptions

91.6 per 100 population

Fixed-broadband Internet subscriptions

17.4 per 100 population