President Gabriel Boric announced on national television the details of the 2024 Budget. It focuses on seven main areas: Health; Education; Housing; Security; Emergencies; Care; and Culture.
The president highlighted that the budget has been increased by 3.5% over the previous year. The main areas to be given an increase are health (8.1%), housing (11.9%), education (4.2%), public security (5.7%), emergencies (28%), care (20%) and culture (6.8%).
The president stressed that, since the first day of his administration, his government has been working to move Chile forward. And although the forecasts were catastrophic, the final figures have been better than expected.
The president indicated that, to achieve this, they have worked with fiscal responsibility to make the adjustments needed to contain inflation, thus getting the recovery process that is so necessary for Chile and its families under way.
The 2024 Budget presented today expands public spending, which will bring new hospitals, prisons, police stations, police on the streets, housing, kindergartens and community care centers.
It also seeks to consolidate and further advance solutions for Chilean families, increasing state investment and probity through effective control mechanisms, so that this investment always reaches those who really need it.
2024 Budget: increases by area
Health
The health budget will grow by more than US$1.2 billion. This significant increase will finance more than 48,000 surgeries in the public and private system, thus continuing to reduce waiting list times. We will also expand universal primary care from seven to 20 municipalities, and launch six new hospitals.
Housing
We will continue moving towards the goal of delivering 260,000 homes during our administration. For this, we will increase the budget in this area by more than $280 billion pesos (US$303.8 million) next year.
Education
In education, we will allocate nearly $30 billion pesos (US$32.5 million) to consolidate the Educational Reactivation Plan. We will also give free access to 39,000 new students, who will be given the real chance to improve their lives.
Public Security
We will increase resources for public security to strengthen our police forces. We will inaugurate three new prosecutor’s offices in Colchane, San Pedro de Atacama and Puerto Williams, and we will expand the penitentiary system by more than 4,000 places.
Emergencies
Given the global climate crisis that has caused greater emergencies with harsher consequences for people, we will increase resources to prevent and combat forest fires by 28%. We will also increase the rental of 70 aircraft to four months, and we will continue to finance the post-fire recovery plan for the Ñuble, Biobío and La Araucanía regions with almost $8 billion additional pesos (US$8.7 million).
Care
15 community care centers will come into operation and the Local Support and Care Network will be expanded to 46 new municipalities.
Culture
We will invest in more cultural infrastructure, getting works underway in at least nine municipalities far from traditional urban centers, including Puqueldon, Lonquimay, Saavedra, El Carmen and Petorca. We will thus expand access to culture and advance in the recovery of public spaces. Furthermore, capital investment will go towards improving public libraries and a comprehensive improvement fund for museums, so that they can open their doors from Monday to Sunday.
Find out more details about the 2024 Budget: www.gob.cl/presupuesto2024.