Geography
Located in the Central America, Guatemala’s abundant and unique ecosystem makes it a biodiversity hotspot. The country’s location between the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea make it highly prone to hurricanes, while the location of its highlands between the Caribbean and the North American tectonic plates leads to earthquakes.
Natural disasters are quite common in this region. This, along with several social problems, put Guatemala amongst the top ten poor countries in Latin America. The distribution of income is highly uneven and malnutrition is a major problem in Guatemala. Remittances from the US, from Guatemalans who fled the nation during the civil war, are the largest source of foreign income.
Tourism and exports are the other major contributors to the Guatemalan economy.
· Population: 13,276,517 (July 2009 est.)
· Area: total: 108,889 sq km
· Natural Resources: petroleum, nickel, rare woods, fish, chicle, hydropower
Education
A few statistics as of July 2009 when study was carried out:
Average years of schooling of adults: 3.5 years [78th of 100]
Duration of compulsory education: 11 years [28th of 171]
Duration of education > Primary level: 6 years [106th of 181]
Duration of education > Secondary level: 5 years [168th of 181]
Education enrolment by level > Tertiary level: 111,739[78th of 150]
Education, primary completion rate: 74% [93rd of 148]
Enrolment ratio > Secondary level: 26.2% [111st of 135]
Literacy > Definition> Age 15 and over can read and write
Literacy > Male: 78% [115th of 156]
Literacy > Total population: 70.6% [119th of 160]
Primary school girls out of school: 34% [33rd of 99]
Public spending on education, total > % of government expenditure: 13.02 % [62nd of 103]
Tertiary enrolment (university, further education): 8.5% [101st of 151]
Source: NationMaster.com
Economy
A few stats...
· GDP (real growth rate): -0.5% (2009 estimates)
· Unemployment rate: 3.2% (2005 estimates)
· Consumer Price inflation : 2.3% (2009 estimates)
· Industrial Production growth rate: -1.4% (2009 estimates)
· Public Debt: 32.7% of GDP (2009 estimates)
Guatemala’s economic growth turned negative in 2009 due to a contraction in export demand from the United States and other Central American nations. The global financial crisis of 2007-09 also led to a slowdown in the foreign investments in Guatemala. The country’s real GDP growth rate has declined from 6.3% in 2007 to 4% in 2008 and -0.5% in 2009. Over 60% of the country’s GDP is contributed by the service sector, while the agriculture and industry sectors contribute 13.5% and 25.1%, respectively
Although Guatemala has rich agricultural resources and a wide climate range that allows the country to have a diversity of crops, the inequitable distribution of land and inadequate financial support act as major constraints. Traditional crops like coffee, sugar and banana are the most popular amongst the farmers but several of them have switched to non traditional commodities like fruits, vegetables, flowers and ornamental plants. Limited accessibility to Guatemala’s large forest base makes it difficult to exploit forest products.
Manufacturing growth has slowed down in the last couple of decades since Guatemala lost its markets to Asian manufacturers. The country’s primary industrial activities include food processing and beverage production, processing of sugar, tobacco, textile, cement, tire, construction materials and pharmaceutical manufacturing.
Guatemala is a lower middle-income economies coming under the Latin American and Caribbean region as to the classification made by the World Bank on the basis of income and region for the year 2006.
Both the services sector as well as agricultural sector plays important roles in the country's economy. The fertile soil plays a significant role for the agriculture development. As to statistics, services sector constitutes around 60% of the total GDP followed by agricultural sector.
Major agricultural products of the country are sugar, maize, coffee, bananas, and cattle. Important industries are textiles, clothing, chemicals and petroleum. Its economy is largely benefited through the exports of electricity and petroleum productsGDP (real growth rate): -0.5% (2009 estimates)Unemployment rate: 3.2% (2005 estimates)
The agricultural, agrarian, fisheries and farming sector accounts for approximately one-tenth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), two-fifths of exports, and half of the workforce
Coffee, sugar, and bananas are the main exports
The Central America Free trade (imports and exports) Agreement (CAFTA) entered into force in July 2006 and has since spurred increased investment in the export-oriented sector, but concerns over security, the lack of skilled workers and poor infrastructure and facilities perpetuated to hamper foreign involvement
The income distribution remains highly unequal with more than half of the general populace under the national poverty line