Economy
While over 100 years ago, Argentina may have been an economic power house, today, it is from from one. During the 20th century, Argentina suffered from many economic crises. high inflation, growing deficits and external debts, lack of confidence in the Argentine economy. It is important to understand the state of the Argentine economy as it is still very unstable with a recent depression in 2009.
The Gross Domestic Product, GDP, of Argentina, is estimated at $541.7 Billion. The growth rate in 2016 was estimated at -1.8%. The GDP per capita in 2016 was $20,200, a decrease of $600 since 2015. The worst part of their economy currently is inflation. In 2015, inflation rates were 26.5%, since 2016 however, inflation rates went up over 19% to 42.8%. The exchange rate between a US Dollar and an Argentine peso, ARS, in 2015 was 9.23 Argentine pesos for every US dollar. In 2016 however, the rate increased 62% to 14.92 Argentine pesos for every US dollar. This shows how much weaker the Argentine peso has gotten in such a short period of time. The external debt for Argentina hit $155.1 Billion at the end of 2016, up $19 Billion from the previous year.
Argentina is a mostly service based economy as it accounts for 72% of all jobs and 58.4% of all GDP produced. Second place goes to industrial jobs at 23% and producing 30.2% of the GDP. Agricultural jobs however account for 5% of the job market but more than double that in GDP at 11.4%. Unemployment rates are up 0.4% since 2015 and are sitting at 8% currently. However, 30% of the population of Argentina live below the poverty line.
Some of the major products that come out of Argentina include sunflower seeds, soybeans, tobacco, and tea. Food processing, motor vehicles, steel, and textiles are some of their major industries. Argentina mainly exports to Brazil, the United States, and China. However, it mainly imports from Brazil, the United States, China, and Germany.
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