This paper documents the main empirical regularities of the Chilean economy over the last 20 years. In the first place we describe the structure of the economy in terms of the relative size of different sectors, and the importance of different aggregate demand components. In the second place we characterize the business cycle, describing the volatility and persistency of several variables along the cycle, and their correlation with output. In general, some of the correlations show that real shocks play an important role in explaining the business cycle in Chile. At the same time, movements in the terms of trade and in foreign capital’s availability are highly correlated with aggregate demand fluctuations.
