This article presents solid evidence showing that economic growth has been the main driving force behind the large reduction in poverty observed in Chile during the 1987-1992 period. This conclusion is shown to be robust to various poverty measures and time sub periods. Results are based in a recent statistical methodology that decomposes the change in poverty in terms of a growth and a redistribution effect. The data is provided by CASEN socioeconomic surveys taken in years 1987, 1990 and 1992. The exercise is carried out at an aggregate and disaggregated basis. Policy implications are discussed