Reuters

Chile's peso firmed 0.4% against a weaker dollar a day after Pinera said the subsidies would be aimed at creating new jobs or recovering those lost during coronavirus-driven lockdowns. The currency has recovered sharply from its March lows, but remains about 4% down on the year as the pandemic hammered Chile's commerce, services and tourism sectors and drove unemployment to over 13%, its highest in a decade. The peso has far outperformed Brazil's real, which plumbed new lows in 2020 despite a constitutional reform bill aimed at simplifying and reducing the cost of the public sector of Latin America's biggest economy.