Bolivia was the first country during the Great
Depression to
default on its foreign debt, and not until 1971 did the
government return to international capital markets for
financing.
External financing, mostly newly generated petrodollars,
quadrupled during the 1970s as political stability and
economic
growth improved Bolivia's creditworthiness. As foreign
financing
dried up in 1978, foreign banks also negatively reassessed
Bolivia's ability to service more debt. In 1984 Bolivia
became
the first Latin American country to declare an official
moratorium on debt payments to commercial banks, and it
continued
to withhold payment through 1988. Bolivia, however,
maintained a
good repayment record with official creditors, such as the
IMF
and World Bank, recognizing they were its lenders of last
resort.
By the late 1980s, Bolivia had accrued one of the
highest per
capita debts in Latin America. The country's total
external debt
amounted to US$4.6 billion in 1986, or slightly more than
its GDP
for that year. Its debt-servicing requirements amounted to
US$161
million in 1986, creating a debt-service ratio (debt as a
percentage of exports) of approximately 24 percent.
Fortunately,
about 90 percent of the country's debt was long-term
liability.
The structure of the country's debt changed drastically
during
the decade. Official multilateral and bilateral creditors
composed 42 percent of total debt in 1980, compared with
over 75
percent by 1988. Of the eighteen most heavily indebted
developing
countries tracked by the World Bank, Bolivia had the
second
lowest percentage of its debt with official creditors. The
rapid
changes in the structure of the liability were caused by
the
discontinuation of new private loans, large increases in
official
lending, and the government's purchases of its private
debt in
1988. Argentina and Brazil, two of the developing world's
largest
debtor nations, were the country's largest bilateral
lenders.
Despite unsteady relations with its commercial
creditors,
Bolivia achieved at least six debt reschedulings or
deferments
from 1980 to 1988. These agreements typically included
longer
grace periods, extended repayment schedules, and,
occasionally,
lower interest rates. As the Bolivian treasury reportedly
neared
depletion during the 1980s, such measures had become
absolutely
necessary in order to maintain the country's solvency.
Most of
the reschedulings occurred in the multilateral forum of
the
Paris Club (see Glossary),
a clearinghouse for private and
certain
public debt negotiations. Outside the Paris Club
framework,
Bolivia also rescheduled its US$900 million bilateral debt
with
Argentina in 1987 on very favorable terms, including a
fifteenyear grace period and a twenty-five-year repayment
timetable.
According to Bolivia's minister of finance, the
reschedulings
reduced the country's debt-service burden by 50 percent
beginning
in 1988.
In addition to rescheduling, the Paz Estenssoro
government
sought to reduce its debt through complex international
financial
schemes. In 1988 Bolivia negotiated a debt-purchase
arrangement
with commercial creditors, many of which had already
written off
or substantially reduced the value of the loans on their
books.
In order to forestall a complete loss on their loans,
bankers
agreed to a program whereby the Bolivian government
purchased its
debt on secondary markets, where such liabilities are
traded, for
11 percent of its face value, or at an 89 percent discount
of the
original debt. A special escrow fund administered by the
IMF and
financed by donations from West European and Latin
American
governments enabled Bolivia to pay for the discounted
debt. By
June 1988, Bolivia had acquired nearly 50 percent of its
private
debt through buybacks and sought to obtain the remainder
of the
debt by the end of 1989. Another debt-management approach
adopted
by Paz Estenssoro, a debt-for-equity swap, allowed
commercial
banks to exchange a predetermined value of the debt for
equity in
a Bolivian enterprise, usually a semiautonomous one slated
for
privatization. The government's third debt-reduction
approach, a
much smaller operation, allowed a United States
environmental
organization to purchase US$650,000 of Bolivian debt at an
85
percent discount in a "debt-for-nature" swap and receive
B250,000
to manage a 135,000-hectare wildlife preserve in Beni
Department.
As a result of the country's aggressive debt-management
program,
Bolivia actually lowered its liability in 1988.
Furthermore, it
became the only Latin American nation to avoid exporting
capital
during the debt crisis. Instead, it obtained more external
financing, although solely from public sources, than it
paid out
in interest and principal on its debt. Debt management,
however,
remained a controversial political issue, especially for
critics
of the military governments in the 1970s that accumulated
the
bulk of the liabilities. Restructuring or repayment of
that debt
was perceived by some as legitimizing gross economic
mismanagement. The debt was considered negotiable enough
that
Roberto Suárez Gómez, Bolivia's reputed "King of Cocaine,"
even
offered to pay off the country's multibillion-dollar debt
in the
early 1980s to avoid extradition
(see The Security Forces
, ch.
5).
Background | | Bolivia, named after independence fighter Simon BOLIVAR, broke away from Spanish rule in 1825; much of its subsequent history has consisted of a series of nearly 200 coups and countercoups. Democratic civilian rule was established in 1982, but leaders have faced difficult problems of deep-seated poverty, social unrest, and illegal drug production. In December 2005, Bolivians elected Movement Toward Socialism leader Evo MORALES president - by the widest margin of any leader since the restoration of civilian rule in 1982 - after he ran on a promise to change the country's traditional political class and empower the nation's poor, indigenous majority. However, since taking office, his controversial strategies have exacerbated racial and economic tensions between the Amerindian populations of the Andean west and the non-indigenous communities of the eastern lowlands. In December 2009, President MORALES easily won reelection, and his party took control of the legislative branch of the government, which will allow him to continue his process of change.
|
Location | | Central South America, southwest of Brazil
|
Area(sq km) | | total: 1,098,581 sq km land: 1,083,301 sq km water: 15,280 sq km
|
Geographic coordinates | | 17 00 S, 65 00 W
|
Land boundaries(km) | | total: 6,940 km border countries: Argentina 832 km, Brazil 3,423 km, Chile 860 km, Paraguay 750 km, Peru 1,075 km
|
Coastline(km) | | 0 km (landlocked)
|
Climate | | varies with altitude; humid and tropical to cold and semiarid
|
Elevation extremes(m) | | lowest point: Rio Paraguay 90 m highest point: Nevado Sajama 6,542 m
|
Natural resources | | tin, natural gas, petroleum, zinc, tungsten, antimony, silver, iron, lead, gold, timber, hydropower
|
Land use(%) | | arable land: 2.78% permanent crops: 0.19% other: 97.03% (2005)
|
Irrigated land(sq km) | | 1,320 sq km (2003)
|
Total renewable water resources(cu km) | | 622.5 cu km (2000)
|
Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural) | | total: 1.44 cu km/yr (13%/7%/81%) per capita: 157 cu m/yr (2000)
|
Natural hazards | | flooding in the northeast (March-April)
|
Environment - current issues | | the clearing of land for agricultural purposes and the international demand for tropical timber are contributing to deforestation; soil erosion from overgrazing and poor cultivation methods (including slash-and-burn agriculture); desertification; loss of biodiversity; industrial pollution of water supplies used for drinking and irrigation
|
Environment - international agreements | | party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification, Marine Life Conservation
|
Geography - note | | landlocked; shares control of Lago Titicaca, world's highest navigable lake (elevation 3,805 m), with Peru
|
Population | | 9,775,246 (July 2009 est.)
|
Age structure(%) | | 0-14 years: 35.5% (male 1,767,310/female 1,701,744) 15-64 years: 60% (male 2,877,605/female 2,992,043) 65 years and over: 4.5% (male 193,196/female 243,348) (2009 est.)
|
Median age(years) | | total: 21.9 years male: 21.3 years female: 22.6 years (2009 est.)
|
Population growth rate(%) | | 1.772% (2009 est.)
|
Birth rate(births/1,000 population) | | 25.82 births/1,000 population (2009 est.)
|
Death rate(deaths/1,000 population) | | 7.05 deaths/1,000 population (July 2009 est.)
|
Net migration rate(migrant(s)/1,000 population) | | -1.05 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2009 est.)
|
Urbanization(%) | | urban population: 66% of total population (2008) rate of urbanization: 2.5% annual rate of change (2005-10 est.)
|
Sex ratio(male(s)/female) | | at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 0.96 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.79 male(s)/female total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2009 est.)
|
Infant mortality rate(deaths/1,000 live births) | | total: 44.66 deaths/1,000 live births male: 48.56 deaths/1,000 live births female: 40.57 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.)
|
Life expectancy at birth(years) | | total population: 66.89 years male: 64.2 years female: 69.72 years (2009 est.)
|
Total fertility rate(children born/woman) | | 3.17 children born/woman (2009 est.)
|
Nationality | | noun: Bolivian(s) adjective: Bolivian
|
Ethnic groups(%) | | Quechua 30%, mestizo (mixed white and Amerindian ancestry) 30%, Aymara 25%, white 15%
|
Religions(%) | | Roman Catholic 95%, Protestant (Evangelical Methodist) 5%
|
Languages(%) | | Spanish 60.7% (official), Quechua 21.2% (official), Aymara 14.6% (official), foreign languages 2.4%, other 1.2% (2001 census)
|
Country name | | conventional long form: Plurinational State of Bolivia conventional short form: Bolivia local long form: Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia local short form: Bolivia
|
Government type | | republic; note - the new constitution defines Bolivia as a "Social Unitarian State"
|
Capital | | name: La Paz (administrative capital) geographic coordinates: 16 30 S, 68 09 W time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time) note: Sucre (constitutional capital)
|
Administrative divisions | | 9 departments (departamentos, singular - departamento); Beni, Chuquisaca, Cochabamba, La Paz, Oruro, Pando, Potosi, Santa Cruz, Tarija
|
Constitution | | 7-Feb-09
|
Legal system | | based on Spanish law and Napoleonic Code; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction; the 2009 Constitution incorporates indigenous community justice into Bolivia's judicial system
|
Suffrage | | 18 years of age, universal and compulsory (married); 21 years of age, universal and compulsory (single)
|
Executive branch | | chief of state: President Juan Evo MORALES Ayma (since 22 January 2006); Vice President Alvaro GARCIA Linera (since 22 January 2006); note - the president is both chief of state and head of government head of government: President Juan Evo MORALES Ayma (since 22 January 2006); Vice President Alvaro GARCIA Linera (since 22 January 2006) cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president elections: president and vice president elected on the same ticket by popular vote for a single five-year term; election last held 6 December 2009 (next to be held in 2014); note - per the new constitution, presidents can serve for a total of two consecutive terms election results: Juan Evo MORALES Ayma elected president; percent of vote - Juan Evo MORALES Ayma 64%; Manfred REYES VILLA 26%; Samuel DORIA MEDINA Arana 6%; Rene JOAQUINO 2%; other 2%
|
Legislative branch | | bicameral Plurinational Legislative Assembly or Asamblea Legislativa Plurinacional consists of Chamber of Senators or Camara de Senadores (36 seats; members are elected by proportional representation from party lists to serve five-year terms) and Chamber of Deputies or Camara de Diputados (130 seats; 76 members are directly elected from their districts [7 or 8 of these are chosen from indigenous districts] and 54 are elected by proportional representation from party lists to serve five-year terms). elections: Chamber of Senators and Chamber of Deputies - last held 6 December 2009 (next to be held in 2015) election results: Chamber of Senators - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - MAS 26, PPB-CN 10; Chamber of Deputies - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - MAS 89, PPB-CN 36, UN 3, AS 2
|
Judicial branch | | Supreme Court or Corte Suprema (judges elected by popular vote from list of candidates pre-selected by Assembly for six-year terms); District Courts (one in each department); Plurinational Constitutional Court (five primary or titulares and five alternate or suplente magistrates elected by popular vote from list of candidates pre-selected by Assembly for six-year terms; to rule on constitutional issues); Plurinational Electoral Organ (seven members elected by the Assembly and the president; one member must be of indigenous origin to six-year terms); Agro-Environmental Court (judges elected by popular vote from list of candidates pre-selected by Assembly for six-year terms; to run on agro-environmental issues); provincial and local courts (to try minor cases)
|
Political pressure groups and leaders | | Bolivian Workers Central or COR; Federation of Neighborhood Councils of El Alto or FEJUVE; Landless Movement or MST; National Coordinator for Change or CONALCAM; Sole Confederation of Campesino Workers of Bolivia or CSUTCB other: Cocalero groups; indigenous organizations (including Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of Eastern Bolivia or CIDOB and National Council of Ayullus and Markas of Quollasuyu or CONAMAQ); labor unions (including the Central Bolivian Workers' Union or COB and Cooperative Miners Federation or FENCOMIN)
|
International organization participation | | CAN, FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITSO, ITU, LAES, LAIA, Mercosur (associate), MIGA, MINUSTAH, MONUC, NAM, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN, UNASUR, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNFICYP, UNIDO, Union Latina, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNOCI, UNWTO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO
|
Flag description | | three equal horizontal bands of red (top), yellow, and green with the coat of arms centered on the yellow band note: similar to the flag of Ghana, which has a large black five-pointed star centered in the yellow band; in 2009, a presidential decree made it mandatory for a so-called wiphala - a square, multi-colored flag representing the country's indigenous peoples - to be used alongside the traditional flag
|
Economy - overview | | Bolivia is one of the poorest and least developed countries in Latin America. Following a disastrous economic crisis during the early 1980s, reforms spurred private investment, stimulated economic growth, and cut poverty rates in the 1990s. The period 2003-05 was characterized by political instability, racial tensions, and violent protests against plans - subsequently abandoned - to export Bolivia's newly discovered natural gas reserves to large northern hemisphere markets. In 2005, the government passed a controversial hydrocarbons law that imposed significantly higher royalties and required foreign firms then operating under risk-sharing contracts to surrender all production to the state energy company. In early 2008, higher earnings for mining and hydrocarbons exports pushed the current account surplus to 9.4% of GDP and the government's higher tax take produced a fiscal surplus after years of large deficits. Private investment as a share of GDP, however, remains among the lowest in Latin America, and inflation remained at double-digit levels in 2008. The decline in commodity prices in late 2008, the lack of foreign investment in the mining and hydrocarbon sectors, and the suspension of trade benefits with the United States will pose challenges for the Bolivian economy in 2009.
|
GDP (purchasing power parity) | | $43.38 billion (2008 est.) $40.88 billion (2007 est.) $39.08 billion (2006 est.) note: data are in 2008 US dollars
|
GDP (official exchange rate) | | $16.6 billion (2008 est.)
|
GDP - real growth rate(%) | | 6.1% (2008 est.) 4.6% (2007 est.) 4.8% (2006 est.)
|
GDP - per capita (PPP) | | $4,500 (2008 est.) $4,300 (2007 est.) $4,200 (2006 est.) note: data are in 2008 US dollars
|
GDP - composition by sector(%) | | agriculture: 11.3% industry: 36.9% services: 51.8% (2008 est.)
|
Labor force | | 4.454 million (2008 est.)
|
Labor force - by occupation(%) | | agriculture: 40% industry: 17% services: 43% (2006 est.)
|
Unemployment rate(%) | | 7.5% (2008 est.) 7.5% (2007 est.) note: data are for urban areas; widespread underemployment
|
Population below poverty line(%) | | 60% (2006 est.)
|
Household income or consumption by percentage share(%) | | lowest 10%: 0.5% highest 10%: 44.1% (2005)
|
Distribution of family income - Gini index | | 59.2 (2006) 44.7 (1999)
|
Investment (gross fixed)(% of GDP) | | 18% of GDP (2008 est.)
|
Budget | | revenues: $8.039 billion expenditures: $7.5 billion (2008 est.)
|
Inflation rate (consumer prices)(%) | | 14% (2008 est.) 8.7% (2007 est.)
|
Stock of money | | $3.998 billion (31 December 2008) $3.032 billion (31 December 2007)
|
Stock of quasi money | | $6.339 billion (31 December 2008) $4.729 billion (31 December 2007)
|
Stock of domestic credit | | $5.433 billion (31 December 2008) $4.759 billion (31 December 2007)
|
Market value of publicly traded shares | | $NA (31 December 2008) $2.263 billion (31 December 2007) $2.223 billion (31 December 2006)
|
Economic aid - recipient | | $582.9 million (2005 est.)
|
Public debt(% of GDP) | | 45.2% of GDP (2008 est.) 46.3% of GDP (2007 est.)
|
Agriculture - products | | soybeans, coffee, coca, cotton, corn, sugarcane, rice, potatoes; timber
|
Industries | | mining, smelting, petroleum, food and beverages, tobacco, handicrafts, clothing
|
Industrial production growth rate(%) | | 10.6% (2008 est.)
|
Current account balance | | $2.015 billion (2008 est.) $1.984 billion (2007 est.)
|
Exports | | $6.448 billion (2008 est.) $4.49 billion (2007 est.)
|
Exports - commodities(%) | | natural gas, soybeans and soy products, crude petroleum, zinc ore, tin
|
Exports - partners(%) | | Brazil 60.1%, US 8.3%, Japan 4.1% (2008)
|
Imports | | $4.641 billion (2008 est.) $3.24 billion (2007 est.)
|
Imports - commodities(%) | | petroleum products, plastics, paper, aircraft and aircraft parts, prepared foods, automobiles, insecticides, soybeans
|
Imports - partners(%) | | Brazil 26.7%, Argentina 16.3%, US 10.5%, Chile 9.5%, Peru 7.1%, China 4.8% (2008)
|
Reserves of foreign exchange and gold | | $7.722 billion (31 December 2008 est.) $5.318 billion (31 December 2007 est.)
|
Debt - external | | $5.931 billion (31 December 2008) $5.385 billion (31 December 2007)
|
Stock of direct foreign investment - at home | | $5.998 billion (31 December 2008)
|
Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad | | $NA
|
Exchange rates | | bolivianos (BOB) per US dollar - 7.253 (2008 est.), 7.8616 (2007), 8.0159 (2006), 8.0661 (2005), 7.9363 (2004)
|
Currency (code) | | boliviano (BOB)
|
Telephones - main lines in use | | 690,000 (2008)
|
Telephones - mobile cellular | | 4.83 million (2008)
|
Telephone system | | general assessment: privatization begun in 1995; reliability has steadily improved; new subscribers face bureaucratic difficulties; most telephones are concentrated in La Paz and other cities; mobile-cellular telephone use expanding rapidly; fixed-line teledensity of 7 per 100 persons; mobile-cellular telephone density slighly exceeds 50 per 100 persons domestic: primary trunk system, which is being expanded, employs digital microwave radio relay; some areas are served by fiber-optic cable; mobile cellular systems are being expanded international: country code - 591; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) (2008)
|
Internet country code | | .bo
|
Internet users | | 1 million (2008)
|
Airports | | 952 (2009)
|
Pipelines(km) | | gas 4,883 km; liquid petroleum gas 47 km; oil 2,475 km; refined products 1,589 km (2008)
|
Roadways(km) | | total: 62,479 km paved: 3,749 km unpaved: 58,730 km (2004)
|
Ports and terminals | | Puerto Aguirre (inland port on the Paraguay/Parana waterway at the Bolivia/Brazil border); Bolivia has free port privileges in maritime ports in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Paraguay
|
Military branches | | Bolivian Armed Forces: Bolivian Army (Ejercito Boliviano, EB), Bolivian Navy (Fuerza Naval Boliviana, FNB; includes marines), Bolivian Air Force (Fuerza Aerea Boliviana, FAB) (2009)
|
Military service age and obligation(years of age) | | 18-49 years of age for 12-month compulsory military service; when annual number of volunteers falls short of goal, compulsory recruitment is effected, including conscription of boys as young as 14; 15-19 years of age for voluntary premilitary service, provides exemption from further military service (2009)
|
Manpower available for military service | | males age 16-49: 2,295,746 females age 16-49: 2,366,828 (2008 est.)
|
Manpower fit for military service | | males age 16-49: 1,666,697 females age 16-49: 1,906,396 (2009 est.)
|
Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually | | male: 108,304 female: 104,882 (2009 est.)
|
Military expenditures(% of GDP) | | 1.9% of GDP (2006)
|
Disputes - international | | Chile and Peru rebuff Bolivia's reactivated claim to restore the Atacama corridor, ceded to Chile in 1884, but Chile offers instead unrestricted but not sovereign maritime access through Chile for Bolivian natural gas and other commodities; an accord placed the long-disputed Isla Suarez/Ilha de Guajara-Mirim, a fluvial island on the Rio Mamore, under Bolivian administration in 1958, but sovereignty remains in dispute
|
Electricity - production(kWh) | | 5.495 billion kWh (2007 est.)
|
Electricity - production by source(%) | | fossil fuel: 44.4% hydro: 54% nuclear: 0% other: 1.5% (2001)
|
Electricity - consumption(kWh) | | 4.665 billion kWh (2007 est.)
|
Electricity - exports(kWh) | | 0 kWh (2008 est.)
|
Electricity - imports(kWh) | | 0 kWh (2008 est.)
|
Oil - production(bbl/day) | | 51,360 bbl/day (2008 est.)
|
Oil - consumption(bbl/day) | | 60,000 bbl/day (2008 est.)
|
Oil - exports(bbl/day) | | 10,950 bbl/day (2007 est.)
|
Oil - imports(bbl/day) | | 6,172 bbl/day (2007 est.)
|
Oil - proved reserves(bbl) | | 465 million bbl (1 January 2009 est.)
|
Natural gas - production(cu m) | | 14.2 billion cu m (2008 est.)
|
Natural gas - consumption(cu m) | | 2.41 billion cu m (2008 est.)
|
Natural gas - exports(cu m) | | 11.79 billion cu m (2008)
|
Natural gas - proved reserves(cu m) | | 750.4 billion cu m (1 January 2009 est.)
|
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate(%) | | 0.2% (2007 est.)
|
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS | | 8,100 (2007 est.)
|
HIV/AIDS - deaths | | fewer than 500 (2007 est.)
|
Major infectious diseases | | degree of risk: high food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever vectorborne diseases: dengue fever, malaria, and yellow fever water contact disease: leptospirosis (2009)
|
Literacy(%) | | definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 86.7% male: 93.1% female: 80.7% (2001 census)
|
Education expenditures(% of GDP) | | 6.4% of GDP (2003)
|