MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Monday, June 1st 2026 - 22:59 UTC
“We inherited a country with the accounts in disarray, and our obligation is not to complain, but to order them,” Kast said in the legislative chamber
Chilean President José Antonio Kast on Monday delivered his first annual Cuenta Pública address before the National Congress, based in Valparaíso, in a speech of two hours and twenty-five minutes centred on the country's fiscal situation and on criticisms of the outgoing administration of leftist Gabriel Boric (2022-2026). The president denounced that the incoming executive received a preliminary structural fiscal deficit of 3.6% of Gross Domestic Product, more than double the 1.6% committed to by the previous government, and characterized the situation as an “economic emergency” requiring urgent measures.
“We inherited a country with the accounts in disarray, and our obligation is not to complain, but to order them,” Kast said in the legislative chamber, without directly naming the previous administration. The president argued that the state's revenues in 2025 closed almost two points of GDP below budget, attributable to “a revenue projection made with an optimism that did not adjust to reality.” The speech followed the publication, a week ago, of the Public Finance Report for the first quarter of 2026, prepared by the Budget Directorate of the incoming government. Finance Minister Jorge Quiroz denounced that the equivalent report released at the end of 2025 by the Boric administration contained “errors” and “inconsistencies” in the projection of gross public debt for the 2026-2030 period, allegedly underestimated by some USD 10.5 billion. Lawmakers from the Republican Party —founded by Kast— and from the Libertarios, led by Johannes Kaiser, consequently announced a constitutional accusation against former Finance Minister Nicolás Grau.
