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peso crisis produced capital flight, the loss of banking system deposits, and a severe, but short-lived, recession; a series of reforms to bolster the domestic banking system followed. Real GDP growth recovered strongly, reaching 8% in 1997. In 1998, international financial turmoil caused by Russia's problems and increasing investor anxiety over Brazil produced the highest domestic interest rates in more than three years, halving the growth rate of the economy. Conditions worsened in 1999 with GDP falling by 3%. President Fernando DE LA RUA, who took office in December 1999, sponsored tax increases and spending cuts to reduce the deficit, which had ballooned to 2.5% of GDP in 1999. Growth in 2000 was a negative 0.5%, as both domestic and foreign investors remained skeptical of the government's ability to pay debts and maintain the peso's fixed exchange rate with the US dollar. The economic situation worsened still further in 2001 with the widening of spreads on Argentine bonds, massive withdrawals from the banks, and a further decline in consumer and investor confidence. Government efforts to achieve a "zero deficit", to stabilize the banking system, and to restore economic growth proved inadequate in the face of the mounting economic problems. At the start of 2002, newly elected president Eduardo DUHALDE met with IMF officials to secure an additional $20 billion loan, but immediate action seemed unlikely. The peso's peg to the dollar was abandoned in January 2002, and the peso was floated from the dollar in February; inflation picked up rapidly.

      GDP: purchasing power parity - $453 billion (2001 est.)

      GDP - real growth rate: -4.6% (2001 est.)

      GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $12,000 (2001 est.)

      GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 6% industry: 28% services: 66% (2001 est.)

      Population below poverty line: 37% (2001 est.)

      Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: NA% highest 10%: NA%

      Inflation rate (consumer prices): 4% (2001 est.)

      Labor force: 15 million (1999)

      Labor force - by occupation: agriculture NA%, industry NA%, services NA%

      Unemployment rate: 25% (yearend 2001)

      Budget: revenues: $44 billion expenditures: $48 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (2000 est.)

      Industries: food processing, motor vehicles, consumer durables, textiles, chemicals and petrochemicals, printing, metallurgy, steel

      Industrial production growth rate: 1% (2000 est.)

      Electricity - production: 82.802 billion kWh (2000)

      Electricity - production by source: fossil fuel: 51.81% hydro: 40.67% other: 0.29% (2000) nuclear: 7.23%

      Electricity - consumption: 80.806 billion kWh (2000)

      Electricity - exports: 3.7 billion kWh (2000)

      Electricity - imports: 7.5 billion kWh (2000)

      Agriculture - products: sunflower seeds, lemons, soybeans, grapes, corn, tobacco, peanuts, tea, wheat; livestock

      Exports: $26.5 billion (f.o.b., 2000 est.)

      Exports - commodities: edible oils, fuels and energy, cereals, feed, motor vehicles

      Exports - partners: Brazil 26.5%, US 11.8%, Chile 10.6%, Spain 3.5% (2000)

      Imports: $23.8 billion (f.o.b., 2000 est.)

      Imports - commodities: machinery and equipment, motor vehicles, chemicals, metal manufactures, plastics

      Imports - partners: Brazil 25.1%, US 18.7%, Germany 5%, China 4.6% (2000)

      Debt - external: $155 billion (2001 est.)

      Economic aid - recipient: $10 billion (2001 est.)

      Currency: Argentine peso (ARS)

      Currency code: ARS

      Exchange rates: Argentine pesos per US dollar - 1.33325 (January 2002), 1.000 (1997-2001); note - fixed rate pegged to the US dollar was abandoned in January 2002; peso now floats

      Fiscal year: calendar year

      Communications Argentina

      Telephones - main lines in use: 7.5 million (1998)

      Telephones - mobile cellular: 3 million (December 1999)

      Telephone system: general assessment: by opening the telecommunications market to competition and foreign investment with the "Telecommunications Liberalization Plan of 1998", Argentina encouraged the growth of modern telecommunication technology; fiber-optic cable trunk lines are being installed between all major cities; the major networks are entirely digital and the availability of telephone service is being improved; however, telephone density is presently minimal, and making telephone service universally available will take some time domestic: microwave radio relay, fiber-optic cable, and a domestic satellite system with 40 earth stations serve the trunk network; more than 110,000 pay telephones are installed and mobile telephone use is rapidly expanding international: Unisur submarine cables; two international gateways near Buenos Aires (1999)

      Radio broadcast stations: AM 260 (including 10 inactive stations),

       FM NA (probably more than 1,000, mostly unlicensed), shortwave 6 (1998)

      Radios: 24.3 million (1997)

      Television broadcast stations: 42 (plus 444 repeaters) (1997)

      Televisions: 7.95 million (1997)

      Internet country code: .ar

      Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 33 (2000)

      Internet users: 3.88 million (2001)

      Transportation Argentina

      Railways: total: 33,744 km (167 km electrified) broad gauge: 20,594 km 1.676-m gauge (141 km electrified) standard gauge: 2,739 km 1.435-m gauge (26 km electrified) narrow gauge: 10,154 km 1.000-m gauge; 257 km 0.750-m gauge (2000 est.)

      Highways: total: 215,434 km paved: 63,553 km (including 734 km of expressways) unpaved: 151,881 km (1998 est.)

      Waterways: 10,950 km

      Pipelines: crude oil 4,090 km; petroleum products 2,900 km; natural gas 9,918 km

      Ports and harbors: Bahia Blanca, Buenos Aires, Comodoro Rivadavia,

       Concepcion del Uruguay, La Plata, Mar del Plata, Necochea, Rio Gallegos,

       Rosario, Santa Fe, Ushuaia

      Merchant marine: total: 24 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 147,505 GRT/222,500 DWT ships by type: cargo 9, petroleum tanker 10, railcar carrier 1, refrigerated cargo 2, roll on/roll off 1, short-sea passenger 1, includes some foreign-owned ships registered here as a flag of convenience: United Arab Emirates 1, Uruguay 1 (2002 est.)

      Airports: 1,369 (2001)

      Airports - with paved runways: total: 144 over 3,047 m: 4 2,438 to 3,047 m: 26 1,524 to 2,437 m: 60 914 to 1,523 m: 45 under 914 m: 9 (2001)

      Airports - with unpaved runways: 2 1,524 to 2,437 m: Military Argentina

      Military branches: Argentine Army, Navy of the Argentine Republic (includes naval aviation and Marines), Coast Guard, Argentine Air Force, National Gendarmerie, National Aeronautical Police Force

      Military manpower - military age: 20 years of age (2002 est.)

      Military manpower - availability: males age 15-49: 9,521,633 (2002 est.)

      Military manpower - fit for military service: males age 15-49: 7,721,219 (2002 est.)

      Military manpower - reaching military age annually: males: 335,085 (2002 est.)

      Military expenditures - dollar figure: $4.3 billion (FY99)

      Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 1.3% (FY00)

      Transnational Issues Argentina

      Disputes - international: claims UK-administered Falkland Islands

       (Islas Malvinas); claims UK-administered South Georgia

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