Mother Earth Travel > Country Index > Bolivia > Map Economy History |
| Economy - overview: Bolivia, long one of the poorest and least
developed Latin American countries, has made considerable progress toward
the development of a market-oriented economy. Successes under President
SANCHEZ DE LOZADA (1993-97) included the signing of a free trade agreement
with Mexico and joining the Southern Cone Common Market (Mercosur), as
well as the privatization of the state airline, telephone company,
railroad, electric power company, and oil company. His successor, Hugo
BANZER Suarez has tried to further improve the country's investment
climate with an anticorruption campaign. Growth slowed in 1999, in part
due to tight government budget policies, which limited needed
appropriations for anti-poverty programs, and the fallout from the Asian
financial crisis. In 2000, major civil disturbances in April, and again in
September and October, held down overall growth to 2.5%. GDP: purchasing power parity - $20.9 billion (2000 est.) GDP - real growth rate: 2.5% (2000 est.) GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $2,600 (2000 est.) GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 16% industry: 31% services: 53% (1999 est.) Population below poverty line: 70% (1999 est.) Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: 2.3% highest 10%: 31.7% (1990) Inflation rate (consumer prices): 4.4% (2000 est.) Labor force: 2.5 million Unemployment rate: 11.4% (1997) with widespread underemployment Budget: revenues: $2.7 billion expenditures: $2.7 billion (1998) Industries: mining, smelting, petroleum, food and beverages, tobacco, handicrafts, clothing Industrial production growth rate: 4% (1995 est.) Electricity - production: 3.625 billion kWh (1999) Electricity - production by source: fossil fuel: 56.61% hydro: 41.6% nuclear: 0% other: 1.79% (1999) Electricity - consumption: 3.377 billion kWh (1999) Electricity - exports: 4 million kWh (1999) Electricity - imports: 10 million kWh (1999) Agriculture - products: soybeans, coffee, coca, cotton, corn, sugarcane, rice, potatoes; timber Exports: $1.26 billion (f.o.b., 2000 est.) Exports - commodities: soybeans, natural gas, zinc, gold, wood Exports - partners: United Kingdom 16%, United States 12%, Peru 11%, Argentina 10%, Colombia 7% (1998) Imports: $1.86 billion (f.o.b., 2000 est.) Imports - commodities: capital goods, raw materials and semi-manufactures, chemicals, petroleum, food Imports - partners: United States 32%, Japan 24%, Brazil 12%, Argentina 12%, Chile 7%, Peru 4%, Germany 3% (1998) Debt - external: $6.6 billion (2000) Economic aid - recipient: $588 million (1997) Currency: 1 boliviano ($B) = 100 centavos SOURCE: The World Factbook |
Mother Earth Travel > Country Index > Bolivia > Map Economy History