Economy of Uruguay

Peculiarities of Uruguay

Raw Data

* GDP: purchasing power parity - $37.54 billion (2006 est.)
* GDP - real growth rate: 7% (2006 est.)
*GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $10,900 (2006 est.)
*Pop. below the poverty line: NA%
*GDP - composition by sector:
**"agriculture:" 9.3%
**"industry:" 33.7%
**"services:" 57% (2006)
*Inflation rate (consumer prices): 6.5% (2006 est.)
*Labor force: 1.27 million (2006 est.)
*Unemployment rate: 10.8% (2006 est.)
*Budget:
**"revenues:" $5.203 billion
**"expenditures:" $5.449 billion; including capital expenditures of $193 million (2006 est.)
*Industries: food processing, electrical machinery, transportation equipment, petroleum products, textiles, chemicals, beverages
*Industrial production growth rate: 12.6% (2006 est.)
*Electricity - production: 9,474 GWh (1998)
**"fossil fuel:" 3.91 %
**"hydro:" 95.62 %
**"nuclear:" 0 %
**"other:" 0.47 % (1998)
*Electricity - consumption: 6,526 GWh (1998)
*Electricity - exports: 2,363 GWh (1998)
*Electricity - imports: 78 GWh (1998)
*Agriculture - products: wheat, rice, barley, maize, sorghum; livestock; fish
*Exports: $3.993 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.)
*Exports - commodities: meat, rice, leather products, vehicles, dairy products, wool, electricity
*Exports - partners: Brazil 14%, US 12.3%, Argentina 8.2%, China 6.1%, Germany 5%, Russia 5%, Mexico 4.3% (2006)
*Imports: $4.532 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.)
*Imports - commodities: road vehicles, electrical machinery, metal manufactures, heavy industrial machinery, crude petroleum
*Imports - partners: Brazil 17.2%, Argentina 16.4%, US 8.9%, Paraguay 7.8%, China 7.5%, Venezuela 5.2%, Nigeria 4.8% (2006)
*Debt - external: $11.4 billion (30 September 2006 est.)
*Currency: 1 Uruguayan peso ($Ur) = 100 centesimos
*Exchange rates: Uruguayan pesos per US dollar - 24.048 (2006), 24.479 (2005), 28.704 (2004), 28.209 (2003), 21.257 (2002)
*Fiscal year: calendar year

Natural resources and agriculture

* Cattle were introduced to Uruguay before its independence by Hernando Arias de Saveedra, the Spanish Governor of Buenos Aires in 1603. Beef exports in 2006 amounted around a 37% of Uruguayan exports. [http://www.aca.com.uy/datos_estadisticos/exportaciones_2006.htm ]
* Wool is a traditional product exported mainly to China, followed by the UK and India. [http://www.sul.org.uy Secretariado Uruguayo de la Lana ] ]
* Fine varieties of rice are produced in the lowlands in the east of the country close to the Laguna Merín on the Uruguay-Brazil border. The national company Saman claims to be the main exporter in Latin America. [http://www.saman.com.uy SAMAN. Principal exportador de arroz de América Latina. The leading rice exporter in Latin America ] ] Countries it exports to include Brazil, Iran, Peru, South Africa, Chile, Senegal, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, USA, Canada and China.
* Mineral products, including gold, granite and quartz.
* Wood, cork and derivative products.

ee also

* Liebig Extract of Meat Company, which ran a very large and influential beef extract factory in Fray Bentos for 100 years
* Uruguay
* Economy of South America

References

External links