Colombia

Colombia was one of the three countries that emerged from the collapse of Gran Colombia in 1830 (the others are Ecuador and Venezuela). A four-decade long conflict between government forces and anti-government insurgent groups, principally the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) heavily funded by the drug trade, escalated during the 1990s. The insurgents lack the military or popular support necessary to overthrow the government and violence has been decreasing since about 2002, but insurgents continue attacks against civilians and large areas of the countryside are under guerrilla influence or are contested by security forces. More than 31,000 former paramilitaries had demobilized by the end of 2006 and the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) as a formal organization had ceased to function. In the wake of the paramilitary demobilization, emerging criminal groups arose, whose members include some former paramilitaries. The Colombian Government has stepped up efforts to reassert government control throughout the country, and now has a presence in every one of its administrative departments. However, neighboring countries worry about the violence spilling over their borders.

Economical characteristics

• Currency: Peso (ISO code: COP)
• Central bank discount rate: 3.5% (31 November 2009)
• Commercial banks lending rate: 9.57% (31 December 2009)
• Stock of money (M1): $25.01 billion (31 December 2009)
• Quasi money (with M1 makes M2): $26.57 billion (31 December 2008)

Statistics

Statistic / Year	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
GDP (million USD)	86 301	94 053	92 877	93 016	91 702	113 774	144 581	162 347	207 786	243 765
Govt. debt (% of GDP)					56.702	55.674	78.127	56.968	49.085	54.297
Govt. revenue (% of GDP)			16.063	14.801	17.622	20.261	23.496	21.781	24.040	23.459
Govt. expenses (% of GDP)			20.842	18.595	22.132	22.928	23.469	24.063	25.476	23.702
Debt to revenue (years)					3.218	2.748	3.325	2.615	2.042	2.315

References

Note: statistical data was rounded. Different sources may use different methodologies for their estimates. Debt to revenue is calculated by dividing the two variables from their original ('unrounded') values. It represents how long it would a government take to repay its entire debt if it used its whole revenue for this purpose.

External links

• Colombia on Wikipedia
• Central bank of Colombia
• Country profile (pdf) from the Enterprise Studies page (part of the The World Bank Group)
• Studies from the Library of Congress (1986-1998)
• BBC country profile