Economy
- overview:
Colombia's
economy suffers from weak domestic and foreign demand, austere government budgets,
and serious internal armed conflict. Other economic problems facing the new president
URIBE range from reforming the pension system to reducing high unemployment.
Two
of Colombia's leading exports, oil and coffee, face an uncertain future; new exploration
is needed to offset declining oil production, while coffee harvests and prices
are depressed. Colombian business leaders are calling for greater progress in
solving the conflict with insurgent groups.
On
the positive side, several international financial institutions have praised the
economic reforms introduced by President
URIBE and have pledged enough funding to cover Colombia's debt servicing costs
in 2003.
GDP:
purchasing power parity - $268 billion (2002 est.)
GDP
- real growth rate: 2% (2002 est.)
GDP
- per capita: purchasing power parity - $6,500 (2002 est.)
GDP
- composition by sector: agriculture: 13% industry: 30% services: 57% (2001
est.)
Population
below poverty line: 55% (2001)
Household
income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: 1% highest 10%: 44%
(1999)
Distribution
of family income - Gini index: 57.1 (1996)
Inflation
rate (consumer prices): 6.2% (2002)
Labor
force: 18.3 million (1999 est.)
Labor
force - by occupation: services 46%, agriculture 30%, industry 24% (1990)
Unemployment
rate: 17.4% (2002 est.)
Budget:
revenues: $24 billion expenditures: $25.6 billion, including capital expenditures
of $NA (2001 est.)
Industries:
textiles, food processing, oil, clothing and footwear, beverages, chemicals,
cement; gold, coal, emeralds
Industrial
production growth rate: 4% (2001 est.)
Electricity
- production: 42.99 billion kWh (2001)
Electricity
- production by source: fossil fuel: 26% hydro: 72.7% other: 1.3% (2001) nuclear:
0%
Electricity
- consumption: 39.81 billion kWh (2001)
Electricity
- exports: 210 million kWh (2001)
Electricity
- imports: 40 million kWh (2001)
Oil
- production: 614,400 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil
- consumption: 252,000 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil
- exports: NA (2001)
Oil
- imports: NA (2001)
Oil
- proved reserves: 1.8 billion bbl (January 2002 est.)
Natural
gas - proved reserves: 132 billion cu m (January 2002 est.)
Agriculture
- products: coffee, cut flowers, bananas, rice, tobacco, corn, sugarcane,
cocoa beans, oilseed, vegetables; forest products; shrimp Exports: $12.9 billion
f.o.b. (2002 est.)
Exports
- commodities: petroleum, coffee, coal, apparel, bananas, cut flowers
Exports
- partners: US 43%, Andean Community of Nations 22%, EU 14%, (2001 est.)
Imports:
$12.5 billion f.o.b. (2002 est.)
Imports
- commodities: industrial equipment, transportation equipment, consumer goods,
chemicals, paper products, fuels, electricity
Imports
- partners: US 35%, EU 16%, Andean Community of Nations 15%, Japan 5% (2001
est.)
Debt
- external: $38.4 billion (2002 est.)
Economic
aid - recipient: $NA
Currency:
Colombian peso (COP)
Currency
code: COP Exchange rates: Colombian pesos per US dollar - 2,504.24 (2002),
2,299.63 (2001), 2,087.9 (2000), 1,756.23 (1999), 1,426.04 (1998)
Fiscal
year: calendar year
Next
