Honduras
is one of the poorest countries of the Western hemisphere
and its economy is based on agriculture and wood was strongly
affected by the climatic phenomenon del Niño in 1997,
especially by the forest fires. The passage of the Mitch hurricane,
in more of the 14 000 died and disappeared, has affected a
third of the inhabitants of the country, more than one third
of the roads was destroyed and much of exploitations were
devastated. With the loss of coffee and banana harvests, exports
of the country (already affected by the falls in the prices
of the international market) were largely reduced; and in
more the imports of food and products of construction have
being increased, which unbalanced the foreign trade significantly.
In more of bananas and coffee, the principal agricultural
produce of the country is the beans, cotton, the corn, rice,
the sorghum and sugar; there are also dairy products, breedings
of bovines and the trade of the seafood. In more than one
small industry of wood, there is a rather restricted sector
of consumer goods. Honduras also has a small mining industry
which exports iron, zinc and money. The economy rests in several
forms with assistances subsidized by the United States, in
a direct way and a multilateral way (through the IMF, the
Bank of Development Inter-American and different). The relationships
to the IMF were difficult (the results required in 1997 were
not obtained) and the government was obliged to reduce the
budget to avoid losing the international assistance. Honduras
is member of the Common Market of Central America. Its principal
trade partner is the United States followed of Spain, Germany,
Belgium and the United Kingdom.
