Economic Goals
The Following Economic Goals will be discussed:
Inflation
Unemployment
High and Sustained Growth
A conclusion of the research will follow
Inflation
Unemployment
High and Sustained Growth
A conclusion of the research will follow
Inflation
What does the data say?
Despite Argentina the country of Bolivia has the highest inflation rate at 6.5%. Even amongst many other Latin American countries Bolivia is still exceptionally high. When compared to major world powers such the U.S. Bolivia is almost three times as high. This may be due to the fact that much of Bolivia is still undeveloped.
Is Inflation a Concern for Bolivia?
I don’t believe that inflation is an issue for Bolivia. Even though it has relatively high rate of inflation I think its not a concern because:
Despite Argentina the country of Bolivia has the highest inflation rate at 6.5%. Even amongst many other Latin American countries Bolivia is still exceptionally high. When compared to major world powers such the U.S. Bolivia is almost three times as high. This may be due to the fact that much of Bolivia is still undeveloped.
Is Inflation a Concern for Bolivia?
I don’t believe that inflation is an issue for Bolivia. Even though it has relatively high rate of inflation I think its not a concern because:
- Despite its rise from 4.5% in the year 2012;
unemployment actually dropped and GDP rose for both the country and per capita.
This indicates an upward swing for the countries overall economy. As long as spending power stays ahead of the
inflation then I don’t believe inflation should be a cause for concern
- In the case of Bolivia where it’s still partly undeveloped
a high inflation isn’t such a big deal because the country is still going
through a developmental stage.
- According to tradingeconomic.com Bolivia has
experienced hyperinflation rates of up 300+% however sense a record low in the
early 2000’s its inflation rate has become more stable. That combined with the
above information leads me to believe that Bolivia is not struggling with
inflation.
Unemployment
What does the data show?
Bolivia has an unemployment rate relatively close to that of our own, which may mean that it isn’t struggling too much in this area. However many other Latin American countries have a far lower rate of unemployment such as Peru with a 3.6% rate in 2012. It is more closely related to Argentina when in come to South American countries, but Argentina also had a much higher rate of inflation so it may not be good for them to be in the same league.
I wasn’t able to find much on unemployment for certain groups in Bolivia. They do allow Child
Labor and actually passed legislature making it legal for them to work in recent years. In early 2000’s Mundi posted rates of 8.7% for children between the ages of 15-24. They now allow children as young as 10 years of age to work in Bolivia, but I was unable to find statistics relating to the unemployment of children for this age group
Is it a concern?
I don’t think that unemployment is any sort of major concern for Bolivia. Some of the reasons I believe this to be true are as follows:
Bolivia has an unemployment rate relatively close to that of our own, which may mean that it isn’t struggling too much in this area. However many other Latin American countries have a far lower rate of unemployment such as Peru with a 3.6% rate in 2012. It is more closely related to Argentina when in come to South American countries, but Argentina also had a much higher rate of inflation so it may not be good for them to be in the same league.
I wasn’t able to find much on unemployment for certain groups in Bolivia. They do allow Child
Labor and actually passed legislature making it legal for them to work in recent years. In early 2000’s Mundi posted rates of 8.7% for children between the ages of 15-24. They now allow children as young as 10 years of age to work in Bolivia, but I was unable to find statistics relating to the unemployment of children for this age group
Is it a concern?
I don’t think that unemployment is any sort of major concern for Bolivia. Some of the reasons I believe this to be true are as follows:
- The unemployment rate is relatively stable only
changing .1% in the last year and that was decline.
- Bolivia has passed child labor laws allowing
them to join the work force, they may be unskilled laborers but Bolivia is
largely undeveloped and produces much of its income from areas or work that don’t
require as much skill.
- Bolivia’s current unemployment rate is much
lower that what it was in it’s recent past as shown by this chart from
tradingeconomics.com.
High and Sustained Growth
What does the data say?
GDP: Bolivia ranked last amongst the countries it was compared to in GDP. It made only about one sixth of what the next lowest country did in a year. As far as world ranking goes it ranked at 92 which is just slightly above the halfway mark. I think if it were not for Bolivia’s natural oil resources it would have fallen far below this point. Despite being such a small amount the GDP has climbed continually the last few years so they at least seem to be headed in the right direction.
GDP per capita: Bolivia ranked lowest again in GDP per capita coming in with only 55 hundred dollars per household. It obviously can’t be measured on the same scale as the U.S., but even amongst countries neighboring it; Bolivia only managed to make about half what they did. In fact it ranked 155 out of approximately 200 countries. This putting them in the bottom quarter percentile and showing that large portions of Bolivia most likely suffer from poverty. However again on a positive note it has steadily increased by $300 per year.
The pictures bellows is a good indicator as it shows Bolivia being the lowest ranked large Latin American country for GDP per capita:
GDP: Bolivia ranked last amongst the countries it was compared to in GDP. It made only about one sixth of what the next lowest country did in a year. As far as world ranking goes it ranked at 92 which is just slightly above the halfway mark. I think if it were not for Bolivia’s natural oil resources it would have fallen far below this point. Despite being such a small amount the GDP has climbed continually the last few years so they at least seem to be headed in the right direction.
GDP per capita: Bolivia ranked lowest again in GDP per capita coming in with only 55 hundred dollars per household. It obviously can’t be measured on the same scale as the U.S., but even amongst countries neighboring it; Bolivia only managed to make about half what they did. In fact it ranked 155 out of approximately 200 countries. This putting them in the bottom quarter percentile and showing that large portions of Bolivia most likely suffer from poverty. However again on a positive note it has steadily increased by $300 per year.
The pictures bellows is a good indicator as it shows Bolivia being the lowest ranked large Latin American country for GDP per capita:
Source: Wikipedia via World
Bank information
Are GDP and GDP per capita a concern?
Yes I would say that both are a concern for Bolivia. Given that Bolivia is one of the larger countries in South America for it to fall so far below surrounding countries proves that this is a problem. Its GDP per capita is one of the worst in the entire world not just South America. Despite its steady rise I would say that this is definitely an area of concern.
What does the data say?
Bolivia actually had the highest growth out of all the countries in this set of data. They even managed to rank 25th in the world rankings for growth rate. However it doesn’t mean as much to say 6.8% 50 billion as it does to say 1.6% 16 trillion. Despite the fact that they seem to suffer in all other categories concerning their GDP they do show significant growth. Even the last couple years their growth rate was above 5%.
Is this a concern?
I don’t believe their growth is a concern I think they are on the right path. They have had sustained growth over the past couple years. I think the concern for Bolivia is more of their GDP then their growth rate.
Are GDP and GDP per capita a concern?
Yes I would say that both are a concern for Bolivia. Given that Bolivia is one of the larger countries in South America for it to fall so far below surrounding countries proves that this is a problem. Its GDP per capita is one of the worst in the entire world not just South America. Despite its steady rise I would say that this is definitely an area of concern.
What does the data say?
Bolivia actually had the highest growth out of all the countries in this set of data. They even managed to rank 25th in the world rankings for growth rate. However it doesn’t mean as much to say 6.8% 50 billion as it does to say 1.6% 16 trillion. Despite the fact that they seem to suffer in all other categories concerning their GDP they do show significant growth. Even the last couple years their growth rate was above 5%.
Is this a concern?
I don’t believe their growth is a concern I think they are on the right path. They have had sustained growth over the past couple years. I think the concern for Bolivia is more of their GDP then their growth rate.
- They have continued to grow at above 5% for the
last 3 years
- They rank amongst the top countries as far as
growth rate goes
Conclusion
Are they meeting their economic
goals?
- Inflation:
was a little higher than the other countries recorded however it is just above
6% and they are managing to stay ahead of the inflation. If we take a look at
the GDP and per capita both are rising indicating the inflation doesn’t seem to
be too far out of hand.
- Unemployment:
The same as before unemployment could be lower however it is not out of
control. It has stabilized compared to how it was in past years and is comparable
to many other countries. It ranked only 80th in the world meaning it
is definitely in the upper quartile and isn’t the main focus of concern
- High and
Sustained Growth: Though the growth rate itself was phenomenal at 6.8% almost
three times the global average; the GDP that is growing is on the lower end.
Dually the per capita is even further down the totem pole and that means the
high growth rate isn’t doing all that much. I think this is by far the biggest
area of concern for Bolivia.