| Economy - overview | Landlocked Paraguay has a market economy marked by a large informal sector. This sector features both reexport of imported consumer goods to neighboring countries, as well as the activities of thousands of microenterprises and urban street vendors. Because of the importance of the informal sector, accurate economic measures are difficult to obtain. A large percentage of the population derives its living from agricultural activity, often on a subsistence basis. On a per capita basis, real income has stagnated at 1980 levels. Most observers attribute Paraguay's poor economic performance to political uncertainty, corruption, lack of progress on structural reform, substantial internal and external debt, and deficient infrastructure. Aided by a firmer exchange rate and perhaps a greater confidence in the economic policy of the DUARTE FRUTOS administration, the economy rebounded between 2003 and 2006, posting modest growth each year. |
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| GDP | 1% (2006 est.) |
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| GDP - real growth rate | 4% (2006 est.) |
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| GDP - composition by sector | agriculture: 22.4%
industry: 18.4%
services: 59.2% (2006 est.) |
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| Population below poverty line | 32% (2005 est.) |
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Household income or consumption
by percentage share | lowest 10%: 0.5%
highest 10%: 43.8% (1998) |
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Distribution of family income
- Gini index | 56.8 (1999) |
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| Labor force | 2.742 million (2006 est.) |
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| Labor force - by occupation | agriculture: 45%
industry: NA%
services: NA% |
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| Unemployment rate | 9.4% (2005 est.) |
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| Budget | revenues: $1.773 billion
expenditures: $1.733 billion; including capital expenditures of $700 million (2006 est.) |
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| Industries | sugar, cement, textiles, beverages, wood products, steel, metallurgic, electric power |
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| Industrial production growth rate | 0% (2000 est.) |
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Electricity -
production | 51.77 billion kWh (2004) |
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Electricity -
production by source | fossil fuel: 0%
hydro: 99.9%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0.1% (2001) |
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Electricity -
consumption | 3.133 billion kWh (2004) |
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Electricity -
exports | 45.01 billion kWh (2004) |
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Electricity -
imports | 0 kWh (2004) |
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| Oil - production | 0 bbl/day (2004 est.) |
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| Oil - consumption | 27,000 bbl/day (2004 est.) |
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| Oil - exports | NA bbl/day |
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| Oil - imports | NA bbl/day |
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| Agriculture - products | cotton, sugarcane, soybeans, corn, wheat, tobacco, cassava (tapioca), fruits, vegetables; beef, pork, eggs, milk; timber |
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| Exports | $1.69 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.) |
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| Exports - commodities | soybeans, feed, cotton, meat, edible oils, electricity, wood, leather |
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| Exports - partners | Uruguay 28.4%, Brazil 19.3%, Argentina 6.4%, Russia 6%, China 4.1% (2005) |
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| Imports | $4.5 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.) |
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| Imports - commodities | road vehicles, consumer goods, tobacco, petroleum products, electrical machinery |
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| Imports - partners | Brazil 27.2%, China 20.5%, Argentina 19.7%, US 5.3%, Switzerland 4.2% (2005) |
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| Debt - external | $3.722 billion (2006 est.) |
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| Economic aid - recipient | $NA |
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| Currency code | PYG |
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| Exchange rates | guarani per US dollar - 5,672.8 (2006), 6,178 (2005), 5,974.6 (2004), 6,424.3 (2003), 5,716.3 (2002) |
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| Fiscal year | calendar year |
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