Chile is mainly a commodity-based economy.The 2008 GDP per capita was $10,117. Chile is the largest exporter of copper in the world. Besides copper, Chile is also one of the largest exporters of wine.

The main stock market index is “The Selective Stock Price Index” or IPSA:

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet rebuked British Prime Minister Gordon Brown last weekend, saying the British economy would have more room for fiscal stimulus now if he had pursued responsible budget policies previously, as Chile has.

It makes you sit up and take notice when you see a Latin American political leader rebuking a British one for financial irresponsibility, but in this case, Bachelet was completely justified. Great Britain, even more so than the United States, was running big budget deficits well before the crash hit.

The Chilean wine manufacturer Viña Concha y Toro (NYSE:VCO) reported 14.8% growth in sales for 2008 despite unfavorable exchange rates in the first half of the year. Net Income was down 5.2% year-on-year because of significantly lower Non-operating Result.

Total sales revenues for 2008 reached Ch$322 bln, up 3.5% from the Ch$311 bln reported in 2007. However, Sales & Administrative Expenses grew 4.6% to Ch$77.3 bln, which offset this improvement, leaving the Operating Income 0.3% below the 2007 numbers at Ch$51.3 bln.

Latin American markest were in line with bourses around the world on Friday, showing strong gains with Merval (+5.9%), Bovespa (+7.17%), the Mexican IPC (+3.89%) and Chile's IPSA (+2.53%). On top of the rally among Latin American ADRs were the Argentine energy companies MetroGAS (MGS) (+37,91%), Edenor (EDN) (+21.0%) and Petrobras Energia (PZE) (+16.09%). Two other Argentine companies came in next among the top gainers, with Telecom Argentina (TEO) (+14.47%) and Banco Macro (BMA) (+12.38%). They were followed by Mexican radio broadcasting company Grupo Radio Centro (RC) (+11.56%) and Brazilian wireless service provider TIM Participacoes (TSU) (+10.49%).

Overall the market for Latin American ADRs showed a very strong gain, with only 6 ending the day lower, against 75 ADRs showing a gain. 37 Latin American ADRs were unchanged due to no trading activity.

Chile's largest wine exporter, Viña Concha y Toro (NYSE: VCO), on November 27, informed the local securities and exchange commission that the company will issue 28 million new shares on December 18. In addition, the company will issue bonds worth two million UF (US$63 million), with a five year maturity, and another two million UF, 21 year bonds (details).

On November 25, two days prior to the announcement, the Chilean broker Banchile Inversiones lowered their rating on VCO from BUY to HOLD. The target price was lowered from Ch$1.400 to Ch$1.250. VCO currently trades at Ch$980 on the local market.

The largest exporter of wine in Chile, Viña Concha y Toro (NYSE: VCO), proposed Thursday a capital increase of approximately US$45 million, through the issue of new shares, and up to US$129 million through the issue of new bonds. The total increase of capital of up to US$174 million will be used to pay off old debt, and to finance new investments.

A shareholder meeting will be held on December 18, with a vote on the issue of 29 million new shares, in addition to the 719 million currently in circulation, representing a 4,03% increase.

Yet emerging market economies are set not only to emerge, but also dominate the economic future of the world. In 10 years time, they will add one billion consumers to the global marketplace. In another 30 years, the combined GNP of emerging markets will overtake that of developed economies. In 50 years, emerging markets will be nearly twice the size of today's economic leaders.

The rise of emerging market stock markets has been equally impressive. In 1981, the total value of all stocks in emerging markets was $80 billion-less than the market cap of Samsung alone in 2005. In the past 25 years, the total value has risen to over $5 trillion. In 1988, there were just 20 companies in emerging markets with sales of over $1 billion. By 2005, there were 270 with $1 billion+ sales -- and 38 had sales over $10 billion.

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