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Chile denies forest fires have major economic impact

Xinhua, February 2, 2017 Adjust font size:

The Chilean Finance Minister, Rodrigo Valdes, said Wednesday that the largest forest fires in the history of the country would not have a significant economic impact on the country.

"It will not be so significant. It will probably be seen in the GDP but it will not be a macroeconomic catastrophe," Valdes told a press conference.

The largest forest fires ever seen in Chile have caused at least 11 deaths, driven nearly 3,200 people from their homes.

The fire in Chile's seven regions have caused as of yet uncalculated losses for the forestry and cellulose industries, as well as smaller agricultural losses, especially wineries.

"We must be careful with employment in certain places, but we have tools to help companies and people. I feel we can contain this well, we should not be alarmed," said Valdes.

However, Valdes admitted that the full scale of the economic impact was not measured yet since some forest fires continue to burn.

"Chile has very strong fiscal institutions. This gives flexibility to the government and the Finance Ministry to make use of the resources needed," he added.

The government has been overwhelmed by the range of the disaster and called for international aid in January. That response came swiftly as Peru, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, France, the U.S., Russia, Portugal, Spain and Mexico have all sent expert teams to help fight the blazes. Enditem