Storm delays megarefom vote as damage toll doubles to $400 million.

The frontal system that has battered Chile since last Thursday—with ten regions under weather alert and a state of catastrophe declared in Coquimbo and Huasco—has turned this Monday into a day where climate emergency and economic policy collide head-on, forcing the José Antonio Kast administration to simultaneously manage on-the-ground damage and the fate of its mega-reform in Congress.

The disaster figures keep climbing. According to a survey by consultancy Colliers with data through Monday, July 20, damages in agriculture, housing and public works already reach US$400 million, double the US$200 million estimated just 24 hours earlier. Add to that retail sector losses, which the Cámara Nacional de Comercio puts at between US$20 million and US$25 million across the 31 hardest-hit communes on the fourth day of the emergency, with the Coquimbo Region concentrating roughly two-thirds of the impact. Small-scale mining in Atacama, Coquimbo and Valparaíso is reporting damage to roads, mine site access and critical infrastructure, while the Sociedad Nacional de Minería is demanding that the government roll out an "extraordinary plan" to support the more than 600 small producers that make up the 26 affected trade associations. Major miners, by contrast, weathered the storm without interrupting operations, though at least one mid-tier mining operation in Cabildo carried out preventive discharges from its settling ponds.

Against this backdrop, the government played its hand to prevent the reconstruction and economic reactivation mega-reform from being sent to a joint committee. Finance Minister Jorge Quiroz ruled out postponing the vote scheduled for Tuesday in the Chamber of Deputies and stated that the Executive is already preparing its defense before the Constitutional Court against opposition challenges regarding tax invariability and environmental impact assessment resolutions. However, Interior Undersecretary Máximo Pavez cracked open the door to a delay by noting that the matter "is under study," introducing an inconsistency in the official message that Biminister Claudio Alvarado sought to patch up hours later. President Kast, on the ground in La Serena to oversee the emergency response, was emphatic: "I expect it to be approved tomorrow."

The most concrete threat to the government's timetable came from the Partido de la Gente, whose 14-deputy caucus announced it will vote against four articles of the bill—those relating to Sence, Sala Cuna, the Emergency Fund and municipal compensation for property taxes—with the aim of routing them to a joint committee. The position is politically significant: it was PDG that made it possible for the mega-reform's motion to legislate to pass with 90 votes in favor. Renovación Nacional, by contrast, pledged its "resolute support" after meeting with the Finance Ministry team, including chief of advisors Tomás Bunster and tax chief Sebastián Vallebona. The PDG's maneuver to fold the Atacama and Coquimbo regions—shaken by the storm—into the Emergency Fund, currently designed for Valparaíso and Biobío, illustrates how the climate catastrophe is being weaponized as a legislative argument.

The fiscal pressure the bill implies is, in any case, a concern that extends well beyond the parliamentary debate. JP Morgan, in a new note published this week, warned that the legislation "widens the structural fiscal deficit" and that "the bill's fiscal design does not appear to be self-financing within the projected horizon." The bank notes that higher growth would partially offset the fiscal costs stemming from the corporate tax rate cut, but not fully, and anticipates that additional real spending restraint will be required in coming years. In parallel, the parliamentary amendment banning anatocism—approved in both the Chamber and the Senate—continues to worry the Central Bank, the CMF and the financial industry, with the government weighing an appeal to the Constitutional Court.

In markets, the dollar closed down $1.7, at $934.3, buoyed by copper's recovery, though it has still gained $36.85 year-to-date in 2026. That figure masks a troubling dynamic: according to Central Bank data, speculative short positions against the peso by non-resident investors reached a record US$17.025 billion on July 9, standing above US$16 billion for six consecutive sessions. Economists consulted by La Tercera explain that these peso-dollar forwards generate additional demand for the U.S. currency that acts as a structural floor for the exchange rate, preventing the peso from appreciating despite copper trading around US$6 per pound. The IPSA closed flat, with declines in SQM and Latam, while Wall Street ended in the red after early optimism reversed amid a spike in oil: Brent advanced 1.3%, to US$89.22 per barrel, hitting its highest level since June 11.

On the labor front, the picture is equally grim. A measurement by Horizontal based on the National Employment Survey shows that more than 120,000 workers lost quality jobs over the past year, with a disproportionate impact on women and a growing scenario of underemployment. SOFOFA responded with an agenda of five priority labor reforms—among them the replacement of severance-for-years-of-service with an individual account and universal childcare access—arguing that the status quo discourages female hiring and fuels informality. The industrial trade group also released its own study estimating that a four-percentage-point cut to the corporate tax rate—from 27% to 23%—would generate at least 80,800 additional direct jobs between 2026 and 2030.

In capital markets, Monday brought notable developments. The Nuam holding—which integrates the Chilean, Colombian and Peruvian stock exchanges—activated its new technology infrastructure for equity trading in the Chilean market, incorporating the Nasdaq Eqlipse Trading matching engine with capacity to process up to 10,000 transactions per second. The launch, however, was not without "incidents." In parallel, a group of securities issuers submitted to the Finance Ministry a package of 30 proposals for capital markets reform, grouped into six pillars aimed at reducing regulatory hurdles, incentivizing new IPOs and boosting liquidity. Mutual fund assets are consolidating above US$100 billion for the sixth consecutive month, and the Superintendency of Pensions raised the programmed withdrawal rate to 3.45% for the third quarter, up 0.14 basis points from the previous half