Bolivia Economy 2001

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

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

Unemployment rate: 11.4% (1997)
note: 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: 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: UK 16%, US 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: US 32%, Japan 24%, Brazil 12%, Argentina 12%, Chile 7%, Peru 4%, Germany 3%, other 6% (1998)

Debt - external: $6.6 billion (2000)

Economic aid - recipient: $588 million (1997)

Currency: boliviano (BOB)

Currency code: BOB

Exchange rates: bolivianos per US dollar - 6.4071 (January 2001), 6.1835 (2000), 5.8124 (1999), 5.5101 (1998), 5.2543 (1997), 5.0746 (1996)

Fiscal year: calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Bolivia on this page is re-published from the 2001 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Bolivia Economy 2001 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Bolivia Economy 2001 should be addressed to the CIA.