BOGOTA, Colombia — Chile’s rainy day has come.

The South American nation prudently set aside

billions of dollars in excess profits from state-owned mining in the

event of economic crises. Now newly inaugurated President Sebastian Pinera has served notice he plans to dip into the piggy bank to finance

reconstruction after last month’s devastating magnitude 8.8-magnitude

earthquake.

Pinera, who was inaugurated March 11 ,

told members of the nation’s congress this week that he will funnel an

unspecified chunk of the money into a new Reconstruction Fund to help

repair the estimated $30 billion in damages caused by the Feb. 27 quake.

Chile is one of a handful of countries that include Norway and Kuwait

that have set aside funds generated by the sale of natural resources to

act as a hedge against the vagaries of global commodities prices and

provide a buffer for future economic crises.

In Chile’s case, the Copper Stabilization Fund totaling about $11 billion

has been fed since its founding in the early 1990s mainly by huge

windfall profits in copper, the nation’s leading export. Copper prices

have tripled since 2003, benefiting the state-owned Codelco mining

company, the world’s largest copper producer and the principal

contributor to the fund.

The stabilization fund is an obvious resource for

the government in light of the staggering losses the country faces

after last month’s quake, which also killed about 700 people. The

reconstruction cost estimate is equal to 75 percent of this year’s

government budget and more than one-sixth of the country’s annual

economic output.

Not included in the $30 billion

damage estimate is lost economic activity that will be caused by the

wreckage of businesses, factories, energy installation, roads and other

infrastructure.

A power outage Sunday that affected up to 90 percent

of the country gave Chileans a preview of what to expect in coming

weeks. Although electricity has been restored, Energy Minister Ricardo Raineri warned that the grid is in delicate condition and that six months could be needed to restore it.

In addition, the nation’s largest refinery, the

state-owned facility at Biobio, absorbed extensive damage and will be

closed for months, according to Mining Minister Laurence Golborne .

He told reporters that it will cost the state-owned oil company tens of

millions of dollars to import the gasoline that Biobio normally

produces.

Chile’s wine industry, which generated $1.4 billion

in exports last year, was also hard hit, as fermentation and storage

tanks holding 125 million liters of wine, or 12.5 percent of the

nation’s production, were ruined by the quake, said Rene Merino , president of Wines of Chile trade association.

Although insurance will cover most of the losses

suffered by the nation’s 250 exporting wine-makers, Merino said the big

losers could be the industry’s 80,000 workers. Four of every five of

those workers were employed by wineries located in the impacted zones,

he said, and some of those jobs could be lost.

Chile’s stabilization fund is infrequently tapped. Last year was one of those occasions: former President Michelle Bachelet used $6 billion to pay for social programs including pension, housing and medical benefits during the global economic crisis.

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