Economist to be Chile's finance minister - media

SANTIAGO Feb 9 (Reuters) - Chilean President-elect Sebastian Pinera has chosen economics professor Felipe Larrain to be his finance minister and will name a former minister from the rival center-left coalition to his cabinet, local media said on Tuesday.

Pinera, who won the presidency in a January run-off, ending two decades of center-left rule, is set to formally unveil his cabinet picks later on Tuesday. He takes power in March.

Larrain declined to comment to Reuters on whether he had been asked to join Pinera's cabinet.

Daily La Tercera said on its Web site www.latercera.com that Pinera had also chosen lawyer and campaign chief Rodrigo Hinzpeter to be the country's interior minister.

Pinera has picked lawyer Jaime Ravinet, who served as defense minister under a previous government of the ruling center-left coalition, to be his defense minister, it added.

Larrain has told Reuters Pinera's government plans to use corporate tax breaks and subsidies to lure investment and reinvigorate growth. Chile's central bank has forecast that the economy shrank 1.9 percent in 2009, and will see an expansion of 4.5 percent to 5.5 percent in 2010.

Critics say Pinera's plan to boost economic growth to 6 percent a year and create a million jobs relies too heavily on private investment and depends on a steady recovery from global financial crisis. (Reporting by Simon Gardner, Rodrigo Martinez and Alvaro Tapia; Editing by Paul Simao)