Chile 1st-half authorized foreign investment jumps

SANTIAGO, June 23 (Reuters) - Authorized foreign investment in Chile jumped to $4.391 billion in the first half of the year, the highest in eight years for a similar period, the government said on Tuesday.

The Foreign Investment Committee said the United States, Australia and Spain led such investments, which jumped despite the global crisis and included retail, energy, services, construction and aquiculture.

Chile is one of the most stable economies in the region.

In the first three months of the year the government authorized $2.278 billion in investment, more than double the amount in the same period of 2008.

In the first half of the year, planned investments in electric power generation accounted for 16 percent of the total and included $250 million by Australia's Pacific Hydro, $150 million by SN Power Holding Chile, $180 million by HydroChile and $95 million by Suez.

"That's a good sign for our economy because electric investments are very linked to future economic growth," Liliana Macchiavello, executive vice president of the committee, said in a news release.

U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart (WMT.N) was authorized to invest $2.8 billion to acquire Chile's biggest supermarket chain, D&S DIS.SN, while Spanish firm Abertis (ABE.MC) got the green light for plans to invest $326 million in toll highways.

In 2008 foreign investment came to $10.5 billion, the highest in almost a decade. (Reporting by Antonio de la Jara; Translated by Fiona Ortiz; Editing by James Dalgleish)