The 8.8-magnitude quake on Saturday destroyed or seriously damaged hundreds of thousands of homes, wrecked bridges and highways, cracked modern buildings in the capital's suburbs, shattered vats at Chile's famous vineyards and briefly shut down some of the world's richest copper mines.
"We will undoubtedly need to turn to international lenders," Bachelet said on Thursday. "We are going to have to ask (for credit) and hope that via the World Bank or other mechanisms we can count on sufficient funds." Bachelet's government initially said it would be able to cope with reconstruction costs out of its budget. But it misjudged the scale of the damage, which according to one estimate could reach $30 billion, or about 15 percent of the South American country's gross domestic product.
The quake and the ensuing tsunamis it triggered demolished coastal towns and villages and caused serious damage across a large area of south-central Chile, including the country's second-largest city, Concepcion.
President-elect Sebastian Pinera, a billionaire businessman who will take office on March 11, unveiled a four-phase plan on Thursday to rebuild the country and acknowledged that the quake will alter the course of his government.
"The future government will not be the government of the earthquake, it will be the government of reconstruction," the silver-haired conservative said.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon will visit Chile on Friday to assess the damage with Bachelet and Pinera.
Bachelet, whose popularity is being tested by the government's initial slow response to the disaster, on Thursday visited Concepcion, where electricity was just starting to be restored six days after the quake.
Terrified by dozens of powerful aftershocks, survivors in some of the worst-hit towns are living in makeshift shelters and abandoned cars on hillsides as rescue workers search the rubble for survivors and troops patrol to quell looting.
Corpses have started to wash ashore in the wrecked coastal town of Constitucion and search teams with dogs scoured a tsunami-battered island where hundreds of people had been camping.
In Talcahuano, the port city abutting Concepcion, dozens of giant fishing boats and smashed cars lined the town's muddy streets. The receding tide left a mangled waterfront and dark stains up to six feet (1.8 meters) on the sides of buildings.
"I'm living a second life," said Jorge Briones, a 67-year-old mechanic who survived the tsunami in Talcahuano, where looting broke out again on Thursday after curfew ended.
Soldiers strapped one looter to a stop sign with plastic handcuffs, but several got away before order was restored.
Economists say Chile, long one of Latin America's most stable economies, has the tools to get back on its feet. The country has about $18 billion in copper boom savings and only some of its mines were briefly affected by the quake.
State mining company Codelco said the quake compromised less than 0.5 percent of its annual output.
In a sign that investors are now betting on a smooth recovery, Chile's main stock index rose on Thursday for the first time since the quake and the peso closed at a five-week high.
Death toll may rise
So far, 802 people have been confirmed dead and hundreds more are feared missing, prompting Bachelet to warn that the death toll is likely to rise.
Officials in some areas said they had called off the search for survivors and were focusing on distributing aid.
"Our priority will be to tend to the living," said Jaime Toha, the most senior government official in the Bio Bio region, the worst-hit by the quake.
Friends and relatives at home and abroad used Facebook, Twitter and Google to post messages and pictures of the missing as well as of young children found alive without families.
Radio stations broadcast names of those yet to be traced.
Very few survivors emerged from the water after enormous waves sucked them out to sea on Saturday.
"It's amazing to be alive," said 43-year-old Bernardita Vives, who cannot swim but was tossed back on shore with broken bones after the sea dragged her away from Constitucion, where an estimated 350 people were killed.
Bachelet told Chileans there was enough food, water and fuel to go around, and called for calm.
Retailers were left reeling after looters sacked shelves and burned a supermarket, but thefts were dying down as aid with basic staples began arriving to disaster areas.
In Constitucion, people complained that some merchants were selling food at three times the normal price.
Chile's top oil refinery was seriously damaged and could be shut down for a month, boosting the need for fuel imports in the world's top copper producer.
Another major refinery could be up and running by next week. But Chile, which produces almost no fossil fuels, was already stepping up imports from Asia and the United States.
