*Bolivia, Economy
Overview:
With its long history of semifeudalistic 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. Since August 1989, President PAZ Zamora, despite his Marxist
origins, has maintained a moderate policy of repressing domestic terrorism,
containing inflation, and achieving annual GDP growth of 3 to 4%. For many
farmers, who constitute half of the country's work force, the main cash crop
is coca, which is sold for cocaine processing.
National product:
GDP - exchange rate conversion - $4.9 billion (1992)
National product real growth rate:
3.8% (1992)
National product per capita:
$670 (1992)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
10.5% (December 1992)
Unemployment rate:
5% (1992)
Budget:
revenues $1.5 billion; expenditures $1.57 billion, including capital
expenditures of $627 million (1993 est.)
Exports:
$609 million (f.o.b., 1992)
commodities:
metals 46%, hydrocarbons 21%, other 33% (coffee, soybeans, sugar, cotton,
timber)
partners:
US 15%, Argentina
Imports:
1.185 billion (c.i.f., 1992)
commodities:
food, petroleum, consumer goods, capital goods
partners:
US 22%
External debt:
$3.7 billion (December 1992)
Industrial production:
growth rate 7% (1992); accounts for almost 32% of GDP
Electricity:
865,000 kW capacity; 1,834 million kWh produced, 250 kWh per capita (1992)
Industries:
mining, smelting, petroleum, food and beverage, tobacco, handicrafts,
clothing; illicit drug industry reportedly produces 15% of its revenues
Agriculture:
accounts for about 21% of GDP (including forestry and fisheries); principal
commodities - coffee, coca, cotton, corn, sugarcane, rice, potatoes, timber;
self-sufficient in food
Illicit drugs:
world's second-largest producer of coca (after Peru) with an estimated
47,900 hectares under cultivation; voluntary and forced eradication program
unable to prevent production from rising to 82,000 metric tons in 1992 from
74,700 tons in 1989; 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
Economic aid:
US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $990 million; Western (non-US)
countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-89), $2,025 million;
Communist countries (1970-89), $340 million
*Bolivia, Economy
Currency:
1 boliviano ($B) = 100 centavos
Exchange rates:
bolivianos ($B) per US$1 - 3.9437 (August 1992), 3.85 (1992), 3.5806 (1991),
3.1727 (1990), 2.6917 (1989), 2.3502 (1988), 2.0549 (1987)
Fiscal year:
calendar year
*Bolivia, Communications
Railroads:
3,684 km total, all narrow gauge; 3,652 km 1.000-meter gauge and 32 km
0.760-meter gauge, all government owned, single track
Highways:
38,836 km total; 1,300 km paved, 6,700 km gravel, 30,836 km improved and
unimproved earth
Inland waterways:
10,000 km of commercially navigable waterways
Pipelines:
crude oil 1,800 km; petroleum products 580 km; natural gas 1,495 km
Ports:
none; maritime outlets are Arica and Antofagasta in Chile, Matarani and Ilo
in Peru
Merchant marine:
2 cargo ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 14,051 GRT/22,155 DWT
Airports:
total:
1,225
usable:
1,043
with permanent-surface runways:
9
with runways over 3,659 m:
2
with runways 2,440-3,659 m:
7
with runways 1,220-2,439 m:
161
Telecommunications:
microwave radio relay system being expanded; improved international
services; 144,300 telephones; broadcast stations - 129 AM, no FM, 43 TV, 68
shortwave; 1 Atlantic Ocean INTELSAT earth station
*Bolivia, Defense Forces
Branches:
Army (Ejercito Boliviano), Navy includes Marines (Fuerza Navala), Air Force
(Fuerza Aereo de Bolivia), National Police Force (Boliviano Policia
Nacional)
Manpower availability:
males age 15-49 1,786,137; fit for military service 1,162,160; reach
military age (19) annually 78,125 (1993 est.)
Defense expenditures:
exchange rate conversion - $80 million, 1.6% of GDP (1990 est.)
*Bosnia and Herzegovina, Header
Note:
Bosnia and Herzegovina is suffering from interethnic civil strife which
began in March 1992 after the Bosnian Government held a referendum on
independence. Bosnia's Serbs - supported by neighboring Serbia - responded
with armed resistance aimed at partitioning the republic along ethnic lines
and joining Serb held areas to a "greater Serbia". Since the onset of the
conflict, which has driven approximately half of the pre-war population of
4.4 million from their homes, both the Bosnian Serbs and the Bosnian Croats
have asserted control of more than three-quarters of the territory formerly
under the control of the Bosnian Government. The UN and the EC are
continuing to try to mediate a plan for peace.