Plurinational State of Bolivia

Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia Bulivya Mamallaqta Wuliwya Suyu Plurinational State of Bolivia


Motto "¡La unión es la fuerza!"
Anthem Bolivianos, el hado propicio


Capital	Sucre

Government	Presidential republic
President
- From 2011	Evo Morales

Legislature	Plurinational Legislative Assembly
- Upper house	Chamber of Senators
- Lower house	Chamber of Deputies

History
- August 6, 1825	Declared
- July 21, 1847	Recognized

Area	1,098,581 km²

Population
- 2010	10,907,778
Density	9.9/km²

GDP	2010 (PPP)
- Total	US$ 48.5 billion
- Per capita	US$ 4,451

Currency	Boliviano

Peru-Bolivian Confederation
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The Plurinational State of Bolivia is a presidential republic in South America.

Background

Bolivia, named after independence fighter Simon BOLIVAR, broke away from Spanish rule in 1825; much of its subsequent history has consisted of a series of nearly 200 coups and countercoups. Democratic civilian rule was established in 1982, but leaders have faced difficult problems of deep-seated poverty, social unrest, and illegal drug production. In December 2005, Bolivians elected Movement Toward Socialism leader Evo MORALES president - by the widest margin of any leader since the restoration of civilian rule in 1982 - after he ran on a promise to change the country's traditional political class and empower the nation's poor, indigenous majority. However, since taking office, his controversial strategies have exacerbated racial and economic tensions between the Amerindian populations of the Andean west and the non-indigenous communities of the eastern lowlands. In December 2009, President MORALES easily won reelection, and his party took control of the legislative branch of the government, which will allow him to continue his process of change.^[1]

Economy

Bolivia is one of the poorest and least developed countries in Latin America. Following a disastrous economic crisis during the early 1980s, reforms spurred private investment, stimulated economic growth, and cut poverty rates in the 1990s. The period 2003-05 was characterized by political instability, racial tensions, and violent protests against plans - subsequently abandoned - to export Bolivia's newly discovered natural gas reserves to large northern hemisphere markets. In 2005, the government passed a controversial hydrocarbons law that imposed significantly higher royalties and required foreign firms then operating under risk-sharing contracts to surrender all production to the state energy company in exchange for a predetermined service fee. After higher prices for mining and hydrocarbons exports produced a fiscal surplus in 2008, the global recession in 2009 slowed growth. Nevertheless, Bolivia recorded the highest growth rate in South America that year. During 2010 an increase in world commodity prices resulted in the biggest trade surplus in history. However, a lack of foreign investment in the key sectors of mining and hydrocarbons and higher food prices pose challenges for the Bolivian economy.^[2]