By Raul Cortes and Daniel Ramos LA PAZ (Reuters) - Bolivia's "economic miracle," a boom in the 2000s and 2010s that saw years of state spending lift millions of people into the middle class, is creaking, a warning sign to the wider region battling.
By Raul Cortes and Daniel Ramos LA PAZ (Reuters) - Bolivia's "economic miracle," a boom in the 2000s and 2010s that saw years of state spending lift m.
Bolivia's "economic miracle," a boom in the 2000s and 2010s that saw years of state spending lift millions of people into the middle class, is creaking, a warning sign to the wider region battling high inflation, shrinking government coffers and tepid growth. For years the Andean country enjoyed one of South America's fastest economic growth rates as a boom in demand for natural resources - mainly gas - helped the former leftist government of President Evo Morales fund social programs and cut poverty. But over the last decade gas production has tumbled by around a third, dragging down foreign currency reserves from over $15 billion in 2014 to $3.5 billion in February, when the central bank abruptly stopped publishing reserves data.