Economy of Bolivia

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 (1993-1997) included the signing of a free trade agreement with Mexico and 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. Growth should rebound to perhaps 4% in 2000 given reasonably favorable world commodity prices.

Bolivia recorded in 2002, a fiscal deficit of about 8.6% of GDP. According to the governement, Bolivia would have a fiscal deficit of 6.5% of GDP in 2003.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $24.2 billion (1999 est.)

GDP - real growth rate: 2% (1999 est.)

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $3,000 (1999 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:

agriculture: 16.6%

industry: 35.5%

services: 47.9% (1998 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): 2.1% (1999 est.)

Labor force: 2.5 million

Labor force - by occupation: agriculture NA%, industry NA%, services NA%

Unemployment rate: 11.4% (1997) with widespread underemployment

Budget:
revenues: $2.7 billion
expenditures: $2.7 billion including capital expenditures of $NA (1998)

Industries: mining, smelting, petroleum, food and beverages, tobacco, handicrafts, clothing

Industrial production growth rate: 4% (1995 est.)

Electricity - production: 2.576 billion kWh (1998)

Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel: 42.43%
hydro: 55.75%
nuclear: 0%
other: 1.82% (1998)

Electricity - consumption: 2.412 billion kWh (1998)

Electricity - exports: 4 million kWh (1998)

Electricity - imports: 20 million kWh (1998)

Agriculture - products: soybeans, coffee, coca, cotton, maize, sugar cane, rice, potatoes; timber

Exports: $1.1 billion (f.o.b., 1999 est.)

Exports - commodities: soybeans, natural gas, zinc, gold, wood

Exports - partners: UK 16%, US 12%, Peru 11%, Argentina 10%, Colombia 7% (1998)

Imports: $1.6 billion (c.i.f., 1999 est.)

Imports - commodities: capital goods, raw materials and semi-manufactures, chemicals, petroleum, food

Imports - partners: US 32%, Japan 24%, Brazil 12%, Argentina 12%, Chile 7%, Peru 4%, Germany 3% (1998)

Debt - external: $5.7 billion (1999)

Economic aid - recipient: $588 million (1997)

Currency: 1 boliviano ($B) = 100 centavos

Exchange rates: bolivianos ($B) per US$1 - 6.0065 (January 2000), 5.8124 (1999), 5.5101 (1998), 5.2543 (1997), 5.0746 (1996), 4.8003 (1995)

Fiscal year: calendar year

Reference

Much of the material in this article comes from the CIA World Factbook 2000 and the 2003 U.S. Department of State website.