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 government market-oriented economic reforms he helped launch as PAZ Estenssoro's Planning Minister. A major privatization bill was passed by the Bolivian legislature in late March 1994.

National product: GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $15.8 billion (1993 est.)

National product real growth rate: 2.2% (1993)

National product per capita: $2,100 (1993 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 9.3% (1993)

Unemployment rate: 5.8% (1993)

Budget:
revenues: $3.19 billion
expenditures: $3.19 billion, including capital expenditures of $552.4 million (1994 est.)

Exports: $752 million (f.o.b., 1993 est.)
commodities: metals 35%, natural gas 26%, other 39% (coffee, soybeans, sugar, cotton, timber)
partners: US 16% , Argentina (1992 est.)

Imports: $1.17 billion (c.i.f., 1993 est.)
commodities: food, petroleum, consumer goods, capital goods
partners: US 23.3% (1992)

External debt: $3.8 billion (January 1994)

Industrial production: growth rate 7% (1992); accounts for almost 30% of GDP

Electricity:
capacity: 865,000 kW
production: 1.834 billion kWh
consumption per capita: 250 kWh (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 45,500 hectares under cultivation in 1992; voluntary and forced eradication program unable to prevent production from rising to 80,300 metric tons in 1992 from 78,200 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:
recipient: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $990 million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-89), $2.025 billion; Communist countries (1970-89), $340 million

Currency: 1 boliviano ($B) = 100 centavos
Exchange rates: bolivianos ($B) per US$1 - 4.5 (March 1994), 4.4604 (November 1993), 3.9005 (1992), 3.5806 (1991), 3.1727 (1990), 2.6917 (1989), 2.3502 (1988)

Fiscal year: calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Bolivia on this page is re-published from the 1995 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Bolivia Economy 1995 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Bolivia Economy 1995 should be addressed to the CIA.