Chile Forum

jalundberg wrote:http://finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert?from=USD&to=CLP&amt=1&t=1d

I couldn't get the graph to copy over to this text box; but check out the movement on the Dollar-Peso rate starting at noon today. Anyone know what caused that jump?

Chile Thirsts for Rain as Goats Drop, Mines Face Power Cuts
By Sebastian Boyd

April 11 (Bloomberg) -- The reservoir at the Laja dam south of Santiago gauges Chile's predicament: It has been less than half full since August.

Chile is in the grip of the most damaging drought in a century. The water shortage is reducing output at hydroelectric dams, pushing up energy prices and forcing the government to consider restricting power supplies to mines and factories. Subsistence farmers' crops and livestock are dying.

``This year we've had very, very poor rains,'' said Julia Toro, 71, who has 130 goats, horses and sheep on her mountainside farm in central Chile. More than 50 of her animals died in the past six months.

The weather phenomenon known as La Nina exacerbated dry conditions, fueling the drought. Last year's rainfall was already below normal when La Nina, a drop in Pacific Ocean water temperatures that reduces precipitation, was detected in September, according to the Chilean Meteorological Service.

``It's like an earthquake in disguise,'' Alfredo Ovalle, head of Chile's Chamber of Production and Commerce, said to reporters after meeting with Agriculture Minister Marigen Horkohl in February. ``It affects the whole economy.''

This La Nina is the most intense in more than half a century, according to meteorologists at the University of Chile in Santiago. Since August, northern Chile has received no measurable rain. Just 14 millimeters (0.55 inch) has fallen in Santiago, far below the average of 53 millimeters, according to the meteorological service.

`Worst Situation'

``There's more industrial activity, there's more agriculture, the population has grown and the temperatures are very high,'' said Rodrigo Weisner, the administrator for water at the Ministry of Public Works, in the rural town of San Pedro. ``We've got the worst situation in 100 years.''

Much of the mining industry in Chile, the world's biggest copper exporter, depends on hydroelectric power. In central and southern Chile, where Codelco, Antofagasta Plc, Anglo American Plc and Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. all have mines, 45 to 70 percent of the electricity comes from water turbines.