Chile Finance Minister Backs Minimum Wage Bill, La Tercera Says

Chilean Finance Minister Felipe Larrain condemned the opposition for rejecting a government bill to raise the minimum wage by 6 percent, saying their attitude was a “sign of populism,” La Tercera reported.

The proposal, which also was rejected by one of the two parties in the ruling coalition as insufficient, took into account slowing domestic growth and the European debt crisis, Larrain said in an interview with the Santiago-based newspaper.

Chile’s government could speed up existing public works projects and bring forward others to combat the decline in demand for exports, Larrain said, according to La Tercera today. There were no plans to cut spending in the budget for next year, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Philip Sanders in Santiago at psanders@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Joshua Goodman at jgoodman19@bloomberg.net.