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Colombia MACROECONOMIC TRENDS
Unavailable
Figure 5. Real Growth of Gross Domestic Product, 1980-87
Source: Based on information from Colombia. Departamento Nacional de Planeación,
Plan de Economía Docial, Agosto 1987, Bogotá, 1987, 191, 224.
Economic Growth
Following the global economic downturn of the early
1980s,
Colombia's economy began to grow at a respectable level in
1984
(see
fig. 5). Economic growth occurred in all sectors,
with the
volatility of the coffee market determining the relative
strength
of each. During the 1980-85 period, for example, generally
low
commodity prices forced domestic public and private
consumption to
lead the economic expansion, admittedly at a low level. By
contrast, during the 1986 boom, coffee earnings rose more
than 60
percent, which encouraged increased saving and improved
public
finances.
Nontraditional exports--including textiles, coal, oil,
and
noncoffee agricultural products--also contributed to
economic
growth. Output by this group rose by an average of 10
percent
during the 1983-86 period and, depending on the relative
contribution of the coffee industry, was responsible for a
large
portion of GDP. In 1987 nontraditional export revenues
exceeded
earnings from coffee, with oil earnings reaching US$1.1
billion, an
increase of 66 percent over the previous year
(see Petroleum
, this
ch.).
By the late 1980s, per capita income--another telling
measure
of growth--had improved only slightly for the past three
decades
and remained at a level below that of most of Colombia's
neighbors.
Per capita income in 1986 was approximately US$1,330,
which placed
Colombia tenth among the nineteen Latin American
countries. Real
change in per capita GDP had consistently lagged behind
change in
aggregate GDP by two percentage points since 1982 and was
actually
negative for 1982 and 1983.
Despite indications of solid performance in aggregate
terms,
individual social and economic indicators suggested that
Colombia
was still a society of numerous disparities. Colombia in
reality
did not distribute the fruits of economic production more
equitably
in 1986 than it had fifty years earlier. In the 1980s, as
much as
70 percent of income went to only 20 percent of the
population, and
three-quarters of all Colombians were classified as
members of the
lower class and the masses. Furthermore, per capita income
in
agrarian areas was only half the national average.
Although workers made gains in the 1970s, improvements
in
income distribution that occurred at that time were lost
during the
1980s
(see Income Distribution
, ch. 2). Despite government
efforts
to improve education, health services, and aggregate
output,
Colombia may have actually experienced a widening of the
income
gap. Inequalities inherent in fast growth strategies (such
as
capital-intensive industrialization), continued
rural-to-urban
migration (which swelled the urban labor market), and the
effects
of the global recession were cited as the major reasons
for the
downturn.
In the 1980s, ownership of land, financial resources,
and
productive assets remained highly skewed. One percent of
all
shareholders controlled 50 to 80 percent of all stock
issued. Debt
was also distributed unevenly; only 1 percent of all
debtors held
50 percent of all outstanding loans. Furthermore,
industrial and
agricultural wealth tended to overlap, so that most
financial and
economic assets were concentrated in the same hands.
Other indicators of social well-being, such as literacy
and
education, closely followed income patterns. Government
estimates
in 1987 suggested that although the nationwide illiteracy
rate was
only 12 percent, it ranged from a low of 5.7 percent of
those at
the upper-income level to nearly 30 percent of those in
the lowerincome bracket. Illiteracy was most common in rural areas.
Data as of December 1988
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