Economy
Economic overview:
With its long history of semifeudal social controls, dependence on volatile prices for its mineral exports, and bouts of hyperinflation, Bolivia has remained one of the poorest and least developed Latin American countries. However, Bolivia has experienced generally improving economic conditions since the PAZ Estenssoro administration (1985-89) introduced market-oriented policies which reduced inflation from 11,700% in 1985 to about 20% in 1988. PAZ Estenssoro was followed as president by Jaime PAZ Zamora (1989-93) who continued the free-market policies of his predecessor, despite opposition from his own party and from Bolivia's once powerful labor movement. By maintaining fiscal discipline, PAZ Zamora helped reduce inflation to 9.3% in 1993, while GDP grew by an annual average of 3.25% during his tenure. Inaugurated in August 1993, President SANCHEZ DE LOZADA has vowed to advance the market-oriented economic reforms he helped launch as PAZ Estenssoro's planning minister. His successes so far have included the signing of a free trade agreement with Mexico and progress on his unique privatization plan. The main privatization bill was passed by the Bolivian legislature in late March 1994. Since that time, the administration has privatized the electric power generation sector, the state airline, the state telephone company, and the national railroad. The state mining and petroleum companies are expected to be privatized in 1996.
GDP:
purchasing power parity - $20 billion (1995 est.)
GDP real growth rate:
3.7% (1995 est.)
GDP per capita:
$2,530 (1995 est.)
GDP composition by sector:
agriculture:
NA%
industry:
NA%
services:
NA%
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
12% (1995 est.)
Labor force:
3.54 million
by occupation:
agriculture NA%, services and utilities 20%, manufacturing, mining and construction 7% (1993)
Unemployment rate:
urban rate 8% (1995 est.)
Budget:
revenues:
$3.75 billion
expenditures:
$3.75 billion, including capital expenditures of $556.2 million (1995 est.)
Industries:
mining, smelting, petroleum, food and beverages, tobacco, handicrafts, clothing
Industrial production growth rate:
5% (1994 est.)
Electricity:
capacity:
756,200 kW
production:
2.116 billion kWh
consumption per capita:
367 kWh (1994)
Agriculture:
coffee, coca, cotton, corn, sugarcane, rice, potatoes; timber
Illicit drugs:
world's third-largest cultivator of coca (after Peru and Colombia) with an estimated 48,600 hectares under cultivation in 1995, a one percent increase in overall cultivation of coca over 1994 levels; Bolivia, however, is the second-largest producer of harvested coca leaf; even so, voluntary and forced eradication programs resulted in leaf production dropping from 89,800 metric tons in 1994 to 85,000 tons in 1995; government considers all but 12,000 hectares illicit; intermediate coca products and cocaine exported to or through Colombia and Brazil to the US and other international drug markets; alternative crop program aims to reduce illicit coca cultivation
Exports:
$1.1 billion (f.o.b., 1994 est.)
commodities:
metals 39%, natural gas 9%, soybeans 11%, jewelry 11%, wood 8%
partners:
US 26%, Argentina 15% (1993 est.)
Imports:
$1.21 billion (c.i.f., 1994 est.)
commodities:
capital goods 48%, chemicals 11%, petroleum 5%, food 5% (1993 est.)
partners:
US 24%, Argentina 13%, Brazil 11%, Japan 11% (1993 est.)
External debt:
$4.4 billion (November 1995)
Economic aid:
recipient:
ODA, $362 million (1993)
Currency:
1 boliviano ($B) = 100 centavos
Exchange rates:
bolivianos ($B) per US$1 - 4.9137 (December 1995), 4.8003 (1995), 4.6205 (1994), 4.2651 (1993), 3.9005 (1992), 3.5806 (1991)
Fiscal year:
calendar year
