Economy (Bolivia)
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     Overview:
         The Bolivian economy steadily deteriorated between 1980 and 1985 as La Paz
         financed growing budget deficits by expanding the money supply, and
         inflation spiraled - peaking at 11,700%. An austere orthodox economic
         program adopted by then President Paz Estenssoro in 1985, however, succeeded
         in reducing inflation to between 10% and 20% annually since 1987, eventually
         restarting economic growth. Since August 1989, President Paz Zamora has
         retained the economic policies of the previous government, keeping inflation
         down and continuing moderate growth. Nevertheless, Bolivia continues to be
         one of the poorest countries in Latin America, with widespread poverty and
         unemployment, and it remains vulnerable to price fluctuations for its
         limited exports - agricultural products, minerals, and natural gas.
         Moreover, for many farmers, who constitute half of the country's work force,
         the main cash crop is coca, which is sold for cocaine processing.
     GDP:
         exchange rate conversion - $4.6 billion, per capita $630; real growth rate
         4% (1991)
     Inflation rate (consumer prices):
         15% (1991)
     Unemployment rate:
         7% (1991 est.)
     Budget:
         revenues $900 million; expenditures $825 million, including capital
         expenditures of $300 million (1991 est.)
     Exports:
         $970 million (f.o.b., 1991)
       commodities:
         metals 45%, natural gas 25%, other 30% (coffee, soybeans, sugar, cotton,
         timber)
       partners:
         US 15%, Argentina
     Imports:
         $760 million (c.i.f., 1991)
       commodities:
         food, petroleum, consumer goods, capital goods
       partners:
         US 22%
     External debt:
         $3.3 billion (December 1991)
     Industrial production:
         growth rate 6% (1991); accounts for almost 30% of GDP
     Electricity:
         849,000 kW capacity; 1,798 million kWh produced, 251 kWh per capita (1991)
     Industries:
         mining, smelting, petroleum, food and beverage, tobacco, handicrafts,
         clothing; illicit drug industry reportedly produces significant revenues
     Agriculture:
         accounts for about 20% 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 78,400 metric tons in 1991 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