Argentine Agriculture and Economic Reform in the 1990S

Abstract

The case of Argentina has long been a puzzle for growth theorists — a country with a magnificent endowment of natural resources and a well-educated population after a century of (mostly European) immigration. A country that in the early 20th century was among the top dozen countries of the world in terms of per capita GDP, foreign investment, economic growth and other indicators, only to see her output and her international standing stall and eventually go down to Third World standards after World War II. The country’s long secular decline had its lowest point with repeated episodes of rocketing hyperinflation in 1989–1990, which induced people in poor neighbourhoods to loot supermarkets and grocery stores in search of (otherwise unaffordable) food. At that time, about 40 % of the people had incomes below a very meagre poverty line, a big increase on the estimated five per cent living in poverty in 1970.