Economy

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Argentina is Latin America’s third largest economy. It follows the fiscal calendar year. The top three trade partners are Brazil, China, and the US. As of 2015, the GDP in Argentina is estimated to be 578.70 billion in US dollars. The country benefits from rich natural resources, a highly literate population, an export-oriented agricultural sector, and a diversified industrial base. Argentina’s economic performance has historically been uneven, in which high economic growth alternated with severe recessions, particularly during the late twentieth century, and income maldistribution and poverty increased. Argentina is considered an emerging market by the FTSE Global Equity Index, and is one of the G-20 major economies. High inflation has been the biggest weakness for the economy for a long period of time. As of June 2015, the government announced that inflation was at 15.3%.

 The graph below shows the representation of the Exports, FDI net inflow, GDP growth rate, GDP per capita, Inflation and unemployment rate with comparison to the other world nations.

Argentina ranks as:

• Exports(2014)- Higher than 72.83% of all the other countries
• FDI, net Inflows(2014)- Higher than 80.31% of all other countries
• GDP growth rate(2014)- Higher than 13.09% of all other countries
• GDP per capita(2011)- Higher than 64.58% of all other countries
• Inflation(2012)- Lower than 6.52% of all other countries
• Unemployment rate(2013)-Lower than 42.29% of all other countries

Sectors

• Agriculture: Argentina is one of the world’s major agriculture producers. The country exports beef, citrus fruit, grapes, honey maize, sorghum, soybeans. Agriculture accounts for >9% of GDP and almost 1/5th of exports.
• Natural Resources:  Mining and other activities such as gas and petroleum continue to increase and grow. They account for over 4% of GDP, today. The northern and San Juan areas are the major areas of activity
• Industry: Manufacturing is another large sector in the nation’s economy accounting for 15% of the GDP and is well integrated into the agricultural industry of Argentina.  The leading sectors of production value are: food processing and beverages, motor vehicles and auto parts, refinery products and industrial and farm machinery.
• Services: This sector contributes to over 60% of the GDP and is the single largest sector. Argentina enjoys a diversified service sector which includes well developed social, corporate, financial services. In addition they also have insurance, real estate, transport, communication services and tourism. One of the most rapid growing sectors is the telecommunication sector 77% of the population has access to mobile phones.
• Banking: Argentine banking is dominated by the private sector having over 80 active institutions holding over nearly 60% of deposits and loans. The largest bank in Argentina ,by far is,  Banco de la Nación Argentina.
• Tourism: the World Economic Forum estimated that in 2012 tourism generated around US$ 17 billion in direct economic turnover.

Foreign trade

Argentine exports are well diversified. Although raw materials are over 20% of the total exports, when processed foods are included, agricultural goods still account for over 50% of exports. Industrial goods today account for over a third of Argentine exports. Motor vehicles and auto parts are the leading industrial export, and over 12% of the total merchandise exports.

As of 2013, Spain was the leading source of foreign direct investment in Argentina. Foreign direct investment in Argentina is divided closely between manufacturing (36%), natural resources (34%), and services (30%). The chemical and plastics sector (10%) and the automotive sector (6%) lead foreign investment in local manufacturing; oil and gas (22%) and mining (5%), in natural resources; telecommunications (6%), finance (5%), and retail trade (4%), in services.

Trade agreements

Argentina throughout its history has always depended on foreign trade to achieve a solid economic and social growth. They are part of a number of free trade and bilateral trade agreements with a number of countries across the world.

Argentina is a part of WTO and also of MERCOSUR (Spanish: Mercado Común del Sur). The current members of MERCOSUR are: Its full members are Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela. Argentina has also signed a number of bilateral treaties with a number of countries, mainly: China, India, United States, United Kingdom, Germany.

Source:

Global Edge

Wikipedia

Foreign Trade Information Systems