The Macro economy of Colombia

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SUBJECT
INSTITUTION
The Macro economy of Colombia.
Colombia is a country located in the northwestern region of South America. It is the second largest country in South America after Brazil. It is a Spanish speaking nation with the third largest population in the world of Spanish speaking people. Its location makes it the only country in South America that has coasts in the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. Colombia was colonized by Spain after the arrival of the Spanish in 1499. The country attained independence in 1819 but later collapsed with the secession of Venezuela. The country was declared a republic in 1886.The country was the first to have a constitutional government with the Liberal and Conservative parties as the oldest surviving political parties. As a result of tensions between the two parties, Colombia has experienced a series of violence eruptions over a long period of time.
1 Demographics
2008 statistics indicated that Colombia had an estimated 48 million people. This makes it the third most populous country in Latin America. Between 1975 and 2005, Colombia had an increase in population at the rate of 1.9%. The country`s age profile indicates that in 2005, 5.1% of the population was aged between 65 and above compared to over 30% aged less than 15 years. From this statistics, it is projected that the country will have 50.7 million people by 2015. A majority of the Colombians are found in the Andean highlands and along the Caribbean coast. The eastern lower departments making up 54% of Colombia have less than 3% of the population. The twentieth century was characterized by a lot of rural to urban migration making Colombia one of the most urbanized countries in Latin America. This increase is denoted by a population increase of 60% in 1975 from 31% in 1938 in the urban areas. By 2002, the figure had risen to 72.7%. Bogota, the capital city of Colombia, has approximately 8 million people. In 2010, Colombia registered the highest number of an estimated 4.5 million internally displaced people (IDPs). The country has a mixed population. A majority of the people are the Mestizo, a people of mixed European and Amerindian ancestry. Part of the population is a people of mixed African and European ancestry. Those of European ancestry make up approximately 20% of the population. Despite the fact that Colombia is a Spanish speaking country, 101 languages are listed in the Ethnologue database. Of these, 80 are spoken today. Colombia has many indigenous groups with the largest being the Wayuu, The Arhuacos, the Kuna, the Paez, the Tucano the Muisca and the Guahibo. The population also consists of immigrants from Arab, Lebanon, China and Africa. The African immigrants were brought as slaves.
2 Colombia`s Economy
It is important to highlight that Colombia has grappled with internal armed conflict for a long time. This has had serious consequences on the country`s economy. In the latter part of the twentieth century, Colombia`s market economy has enjoyed a steady growth. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has increased at the rate of 4% per year between 1970 and 1998. In 2007, Colombia recorded 8.2% growth, one of the highest rates of growth in Latin America. The Colombian Stock Exchange that was created in 2001, climbed from 1000 points at its creation, to 7,300 points in November 2008.
Colombia`s GDP was US$429.866 billion in 2010 as given by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2010 (5). The GDP per capita was $6,273. However, this is unevenly distributed among the population. In 2003, 62.7% of the income was owned by the richest 205 of the population while the poorest 20% just 2.5%. 37.9% of GDP is taken up by government spending. Almost a quarter of this amount is channeled towards servicing the government debt which was estimated at 52.8% of GDP in 2007.
Colombia was initially an agrarian economy. With urbanization, 22.7% of the workforce was in the agricultural sector generating 11.5% of the GDP. The industry sector has 11.8% of the workforce while 58.5% are in services. These sectors contribute 365 and 52.5% of GDP resp...