Economic Changes In South America Since 1970

The proportion of the population under 15 years In South America is still relatively high. The high ratio became a heavier burden for the employed people, while the economy is unable to rise the productivity level needed to balance it. Another important consequence is the urban explosion. Where the Argentina have become one of two for the most built-up countries in the world, but the urban growth for Argentine has been the result for the foreign immigration increase. The dramatic growth in urban concentration has increase the proportion of urban centres which is more than 10,000 population increased in South America. This resulting of South America become one of the most urban regions in the world including of the industrially advanced areas.

Efforts to change the urban bias have met with stronger political opposition. There are also have been burdens from rural guerrilla movements, especially in Peru.

In economy perspective, changes in economy of South America can be seen since 1970. The changes of the economic has given a result for both external and internal.

This has come as a result both of external conditions beyond the control of these nations and of internal policy decisions made to produce change.

At the most major level, countries in South America are mainly become an exporters. They become exporter of relatively low-value primary products and semi processed materials and they also as an importers of higher-value manufactured goods. Great efforts have been made across the continent to expand the manufacturing sectors and to reduce dependency on imports from other countries. The majority of South American countries followed economic development strategies based on a system of import substitution. National governments used such methods as tariff and price policies to boost domestic industries and protect the countries from external competition. The National government also created joint ventures with private capital and established state-owned enterprises, especially in the

South American countries borrowed from foreign private banks and international lending institutions, such as the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank even there will be a high interest rates on the world market. Therefore, South America were forced to borrow more money just for the service and the interest payments that accumulated annually on their unsettled debt, thus creating the debt crisis. With the debt crisis, insolvency happened in many countries in South America. After decades of substantial progress in its economic development, the region as a whole regressed significantly in the 1980s. Between 1980 and 1990, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita measured in constant dollars declined for every South American country except Brazil, Colombia, and Chile. For a part of this same period, inflation rates skyrocketed in many countries, exceeding 3,000 percent per year in some instances. Currency devaluation, austerity programs, and governmental disinvestment were the most commonly used remedies to check these