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 becoming an associate member of the Southern Cone Common Market (Mercosur), as well as the privatization of the state airline, telephone company, railroad, electric power company, and oil company. 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%. Bolivia's GDP failed to grow in 2001 due to the global slowdown and laggard domestic activity. Growth is expected to pick up in 2002, but the fiscal deficit and debt burden will remain high.

GDP purchasing power parity - $21.4 billion (2001 est.)

GDP - real growth rate 0% (2001 est.)

GDP - per capita purchasing power parity - $2,600 (2001 est.)

GDP - composition by sector
agriculture: 14%
industry: 31%
services: 55% (2000 est.)

Population below poverty line 70% (1999 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share
lowest 10%: 0.5%
highest 10%: 45.7% (1997)

Distribution of family income - Gini index 58.9 (1997)

Inflation rate (consumer prices) 2% (2001 est.)

Labor force 2.5 million

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

Unemployment rate 7.6% (2000)
note: widespread underemployment

Budget
revenues: $4 billion
expenditures: $4 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (2002 est.)

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

Industrial production growth rate 3.9% (1998)

Electricity - production 3.87 billion kWh (2000)

Electricity - production by source
fossil fuel: 48.37%
hydro: 50.13%
other: 1.5% (2000)
nuclear: 0%

Electricity - consumption 3.605 billion kWh (2000)

Electricity - exports 5 million kWh (2000)

Electricity - imports 11 million kWh (2000)

Agriculture - products soybeans, coffee, coca, cotton, corn, sugarcane, rice, potatoes; timber

Exports $1.2 billion (2001 est.)

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

Exports - partners US 32%, Colombia 18%, UK 15%, Brazil 15%, Peru 6% (2000)

Imports $1.5 billion (2001 est.)

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

Imports - partners US 24%, Argentina 17%, Brazil 15%, Chile 9%, Peru 5 (2000)

Debt - external $5.8 billion (2001 est.)

Economic aid - recipient $588 million (1997)

Currency boliviano (BOB)

Currency code BOB

Exchange rates bolivianos per US dollar - 6.8613 (January 2002), 6.6069 (2001), 6.1835 (2000), 5.8124 (1999), 5.5101 (1998), 5.2543 (1997)

Fiscal year calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Bolivia on this page is re-published from the 2002 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Bolivia Economy 2002 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Bolivia Economy 2002 should be addressed to the CIA.