Argentina Economic Forecast

Argentina has a rich agricultural sector, which is one of the primary exports. In addition, this country’s industrial sector is extremely diversified. Up until 2002, the country experienced a horrific economic and political crisis, lasting five years but after that time, the Gross Domestic Product or GDP grew by 9%. Unfortunately, the world financial crisis hit Argentina hard in 2008 and 2009, which led to the government pulling back on the amount of exports.

Argentina has a rich agricultural sector, which is one of the primary exports. In addition, this country’s industrial sector is extremely diversified. Up until 2002, the country experienced a horrific economic and political crisis, lasting five years but after that time, the Gross Domestic Product or GDP grew by 9%. Unfortunately, the world financial crisis hit Argentina hard in 2008 and 2009, which led to the government pulling back on the amount of exports. To help boost the economy, the government also nationalized private pension funds but instead of helping, it affected spending for private investments, causing the Gross Domestic Product to fall to 0.5%. Then into 2009, the GDP for Argentina was up to $558 billion in US dollars, an improvement from the prior year of $572 billion in 2008. Although the GDP took another downward spiral in mid-2009 to negative 2.5%, thanks to the agricultural, industry, and services sectors it rose again to 8.5%.

Argentina GDP Forecast

In looking at the Argentina GDP (Gross Domestic Product, Current Prices, US Dollar), after 2002 the country experienced some growth, which was quite impressive considering Argentina had just gone through five years of the worst economic and political crisis in history. Although things were moving in a positive direction, the global financial crisis hit Argentina hard in 2008 and 2009, which virtually stopped GDP growth and slow exportation dramatically. To show how this affected the economy, GDP numbers for 2008 hit at $328.56 billion in US dollars and from that time to the end of 2009, a decline of 5.63% occurred, closing 2009 out at $310.065 billion. With this, Argentina was at number 40 for world rankings. Using various forms of data, forecasters believe that 2010 will see an increase around 10.99%, which would put the GDP at $344.14 billion at the end of the year. Forecasters are also predicting that year-end 2015 will show numbers of $404.29 billion in US dollars.

Argentina Unemployment Forecast

The Argentina population according to the most recent numbers is just over 40 million. Of those, the country’s urban labor force is estimated at 16.38 million with most people working in agriculture, industry, and services sectors. By 2009, the Argentina unemployment rate was reported at 9.6%, which was an increase over 2008’s rate of 7.875%. Today, close to 14% of the country’s population lives below the poverty line. However, by March 2010, the level of unemployment had dropped slightly to 8.3%. Keep in mind that unemployment is defined as individuals not even looking for employment, people in institutions, and those who are actively serving in the military. Therefore, unemployment may be somewhat lower. With auto production growing, farm exports increasing, and consumer spending rising, Argentina’s government believes the numbers will continue to improve.

Argentina Inflation Rate Forecast

Another area that forecasters watch closely is the Argentina inflation rate. Looking at 2008, this rate was at 8.59% and from that time to the end of 2009, a reduction of 26.97% was seen, which put 2009 numbers at 6.27%. Because of this change, the world ranking for Argentina specific to inflation was number 52. Now, for 2010, experts are predicting the year will end at 10.12%, an increase of 61.34% from 2009. Then for 2015, the numbers are expected to change only slightly, closing at 9.7%.

Argentina Current Account Balance Forecast

The Argentina current account balance for 2008 was reported at $4.99 billion in US dollars but with an increase of 73.47%, 2009 closed out at $8.651 billion. At that time, the country was in the number 22 position for world rankings. Numbers being predicted by forecasters for 2010 and 2015 are $9.52 billion and $5.712 billion in US dollars respectively.