Chilean Finance Minister Felipe Larrain Friday warned of the negative impact of a potential U.S. "fiscal cliff" on the Chilean and even the global economy.

"The United States is the main economy in the world. One of every four dollars produced in the world comes from the U.S. This is an economy with an estimated growth of 2 percent, which is relatively low," Larrain told a local radio.

His concern came as U.S. President Barack Obama and congressmen were holding the last rounds of negotiations just days prior to the deadline for reaching an agreement to avoid the dreaded "fiscal cliff."

Larrain said the U.S. "fiscal cliff," involving some 600 billion U.S. dollars in tax increases and spending cuts, will likely tip the United States and Europe into recessions and affect the whole world.

If that comes true, Chile, being part of the global economy, will find itself in a more complicated situation, despite its excellent economic performance at home, he said.

The finance minister praised Chile's economic growth in 2012.

"This has been a very good year in many ways. The economic growth this year reached 5.5 percent, which places us among the five or ten countries with the largest growth," he said, adding the challenge in 2013 is "to continue reducing poverty." Endi

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