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 (1993-1997) included the signing of a free
trade agreement with Mexico and 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. Growth should rebound to
perhaps 4% in 2000 given reasonably favorable world commodity prices.

purchasing power parity - $24.2 billion (1999 est.)

2% (1999 est.)

purchasing power parity - $3,000 (1999 est.)

agriculture: 16.6%
industry: 35.5%
services: 47.9% (1998 est.)

70% (1999 est.)

lowest 10%: 2.3%
highest 10%: 31.7% (1990)

2.1% (1999 est.)

2.5 million

agriculture NA%, industry NA%, services
NA%

11.4% (1997) with widespread underemployment

revenues: $2.7 billion
expenditures: $2.7 billion including capital expenditures of $NA
(1998)

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

4% (1995 est.)

2.576 billion kWh (1998)

fossil fuel: 42.43%
hydro: 55.75%
nuclear: 0%
other: 1.82% (1998)

2.412 billion kWh (1998)

4 million kWh (1998)

20 million kWh (1998)

soybeans, coffee, coca, cotton, corn,
sugarcane, rice, potatoes; timber

$1.1 billion (f.o.b., 1999 est.)

soybeans, natural gas, zinc, gold, wood

UK 16%, US 12%, Peru 11%, Argentina 10%, Colombia
7% (1998)

$1.6 billion (c.i.f., 1999 est.)

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

US 32%, Japan 24%, Brazil 12%, Argentina 12%,
Chile 7%, Peru 4%, Germany 3% (1998)

$5.7 billion (1999)

$588 million (1997)

1 boliviano ($B) = 100 centavos

bolivianos ($B) per US$1 - 6.0065 (January 2000),
5.8124 (1999), 5.5101 (1998), 5.2543 (1997), 5.0746 (1996), 4.8003
(1995)

calendar year