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Fiscal and Monetary Regimes 231
were subsidized in order to maintain real wages (Argentina, Mexico, Brazil,
and Chile), contributing to the deficit. To cover these deficits, state-owned
companies obtained loans abroad, increasing the overall public debt, or
received treasury contributions or loans through rediscounts by the Central
Bank, widening the deficit and feeding inflation.
In Brazil, by the mid-1950s, the state started to take control of many basic
resources, such as water (through the three most important water plants:
CSN, Cosipa and Usiminas); oil production and refining (Petrobras); iron
ore production and exportation (Companhia Vale do Rio Doce); and caustic
soda production (Companhia Nacional de Alcalis). The Brazilian state also
increased its share in the production of electricity.
32
In Chile, the government created CORFO (Corporaci
´
on de Fomento de
la Producci
´
on)in1939 and used it to create public utilities such as ENDESA
(Empresa Nacional de Electricidad, 1944), CAP (Compa
˜
n
´
ıa de Acero del
Pac
´
ıfico, 1946), ENAP (Empresa Nacional del Petr
´
oleo, 1950), and IANSA
(Industria Azucarera Nacional, 1952). Between 1939 and 1973, CORFO
played a significant role in the economic life of the country by direct
investment and through credit allocation to foster new industries.
33
In Argentina after 1945, the state’s direct participation in the economy
also became stronger. Nationalizations focused on public utilities: Gas del
Estado was created in 1945 and Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones
(ENTEL) in 1946.During the years 1947–50, state investment concentrated
in public transportation: mainly trains, ships, and planes.
34
Policy goals in this period were different from those of the previous
period. On the one hand, state intervention aimed at sustaining economic
development by promoting domestic industry. On the other hand, gov-
ernments attempted to improve income distribution by means of transfers,
more marked in the case of Chile and Argentina than in Brazil and Mexico,
with programs ending up in persistent inflation. Precisely for this reason,
in Argentina and Chile – where social pressure was stronger – growth stag-
nated in the 1950s, much earlier than in Brazil and Mexico.
The state understood that, wherever natural resources or idle private
savings existed, it had the power to mobilize them. Then it could provide
economic rents for those sectors it wanted to promote and, by sharing
32
Luiz Orenstein et al., “Democracia com Desenvolvimento: 1956–1961”inMarcelo de Paiva Abreu, A
Ordem do Progresso, Cem anos de pol
´
ıtica econ
ˆ
omica republicana 1889–1989 (R
´
ıo de Janeiro, 1990), 182.
33
Patricio Meller, Un Siglo de Econom
´
ıa Pol
´
ıtica Chilena: 1890–1990 (Santiago, 1996).
34
Marie-Ange V
´
eganzon
`
es and Carlos Winograd, Argentina en el Siglo XX: Cr
´
onica de un Crecimiento
Anunciado (Paris, 1997), 164.