SANTIAGO – The Chilean stock market and peso took a beating Monday after leftist millennial Gabriel Boric became the country's youngest-ever president-elect with an unexpectedly substantial victory over his far-right rival.
Following a night of street celebrations at the end of a polarizing runoff race, the SP IPSA index opened 6.83 percent down, before regaining some ground.
The peso ceded 3.02 percent to the US dollar to open the day at a historic high of 872.61.
In November, the IPSA index gained more than nine percent when far-right fiscal conservative Jose Antonio came out on top in the first election round.
The peso rebounded then by 3.5 percent to 800 to the dollar.
Boric, 35, garnered nearly 56 percent of the vote compared to 44 percent for Jose, who conceded even before the final result was known.
Tens of thousands of Chileans took to the streets of the capital and other cities to celebrate Boric's victory, honking car horns in approval, brandishing pro-Boric placards, waving the rainbow LGBTQ flag and shouting: “Viva Chile!”
Fireworks lit the skies for hours on end.
Boric had campaigned on the promise of installing a “social welfare” state, increasing taxes and social spending in a country with one of the world's largest gaps between rich and poor.
Branded a “communist” by his detractors, he vowed in his first official address Sunday to “expand social rights” in Chile, but to do so with “fiscal responsibility.”
“We will do it protecting our macro-economy, we will do it well… to improve pensions and health care,” he said.
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