The
coffee is the principal product of export of the agricultural
economics of Guatemala, while bringing a third of the entries
of the currencies of the country. The other sources of income
are harvests of cane with sugar, bananas, cardamome and cotton.
In the fishing industry, the gray shrimps are a significant
source of incomes.
Guatemala is the country having the manufacturing large-scale
industry of the Central America, although it accounts for
15% of its Gross domestic product, with the treatment of the
textiles, food, paper, the pharmaceutical products and rubber.
Guatemala has a small mining industry of copper, iron, zinc
and other metals. Although in the middle of the Seventies,
one discovered oil reservoirs, Guatemala continues to import
the principal derivatives of them.
The ecological
catastrophes, like the hurricane Mitch, which devastated the
country in 1998, and the civil war which lasted 36 years,
slowed down the economic development during the three last
decades in spite of the assistances brought by the United
States and the international institutions as the Inter-American
Bank of Development and the IMF.
The political stability started in 1996, with the signature
of the agreements of peace with the guerrilla, improved the
development prospects economic for one of the poorest countries
for Latin America.
The United States is the principal trade partner of Guatemala,
follow-up of El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Spain, Germany
and Italy.
Guatemala is member of the Common Market of Central America.
