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Colombia Economy |
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Colombia is a country in the northwestern region of South America. The country is bordered by Venezuela, Brazil, Peru and Ecuador. This is the twenty-sixth nation in the world and the fourth largest country in South America. After experiencing decades of steady growth Colombia Economy experienced a recession in 1999. Colombia's economy suffers from weak domestic and foreign demand, severe government budgets, and serious internal armed conflicts. The IMF Economic Indicators published on September 2006, declared Colombian GDP to reach US$156.69 billion in 2008. Inflation has been around 6 percent for 2004, 2005, and 2006. Colombia's main exports include manufactured goods like petroleum, coal, and coffee.
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Unofficially, illegal drugs are also a major export of the nation. Colombia is one of the largest producers of pop-up books in the world. Plantain export is one of the important sections of Colombia Economy. Colombia is the largest exporter of plantains. Colombia is known as a provider of fine lingerie within Latin America with the industry being centered in Medellín.
Colombia Economy is based on free market economy with major commercial and investment ties to the United States. Despite a serious armed conflict, Colombian economy has experienced positive growth over the past three years. Colombia is well-indued with minerals and energy resources. It has the largest coal reserves in Latin America. It also possesses considerable amounts of nickel, gold, silver, platinum, and emeralds. Two billion barrels (0.3 km³) of high-quality oil have been discovered at the Cusiana and Cupiagua fields, about 200 km east of Bogota. This has enabled Colombia to become a net oil exporter since 1986. Although Colombia Economy has vast hydroelectric potential, a prolonged drought in 1992 forced severe electricity rationing throughout the country until mid-1993. The consequences of the drought on electricity-generating capacity caused the government to perpetrate the construction or upgrading of 10 thermoelectric power plants.
Colombia Economy showed a balance in trade with an excess of $910 million in 1999 from a $3.8 billion shortage in 1998. In the year1999 the total imports were $10.6 billion, while exports were $11.5 billion. The imports of the year were $11.2 billion with $14.0 exports. The major exports of Colombia continued to be petroleum, coffee, coal, nickel, gold and nontraditional exports. The United States remained Colombia's most important trading partner, taking 48.5 per cent of exports and providing 42.1 per cent of imports. The EU and Japan are other important trading partners. In order to attract foreign investors and promote trade the government adopted an open trade strategy in the year 1990. This experiment from the IMF is known as "la apertura". The agricultural products of Colombia include: bananas, plantains, cacao coconuts, rice, cotton, sugarcane, tobacco, cassava. |
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