The 5 poorest countries in South America come to show that while the world is galloping towards a sci-fi like model of effortless everyday life, there is still much to be done about certain corners of the world. Take a look at our list of the 10 poorest countries in the world if you need to see some of the more obvious examples. In a world where monetary value is the only value that is recognized regardless of race, age, social status and so forth, being from a poor country is surely a very early red light on the way to a fulfilling and comfortable life.
To make matters worse, the gap between the rich and poor there is light years from what you can observe in the more developed parts of the world. Not only the wealthy and less economically fortunate there living in two completely different worlds but there is virtually no middle class in certain places. People don’t really see it that way but the continent has a very low population density overall and accounts for just six percent of the world’s population. People there haven’t adopted the “modern” type of crafts, trades, industries or whatever you may call it, due to the past hindrances in their economical development. The main types of economic activity there are mining, agriculture and forestry which is reflected in the country’s biggest exports which consist of natural resources and produce. All of the twelve nations on this piece of land are still battling poverty, poor urbanization and rampaging crime. It was all the way to 1990 that the countries of the continent started adopting the Free Market model which, in turn, eventually played an important role in bringing the continent out of a several decades-old debt crisis that was first brought on by a poorly designed economic model that aimed to make smaller businesses competitive.
While being very economically inactive in pre-WWII times, the country’s economy is rapidly developing nowadays but when starting from the bottom, it usually takes some time to get up to speed with the rest of the world.
Without any more dry and boring facts about the economy of a whole continent which probably mostly means beautiful scenery, Alpacas and coffee to you, let’s take a look at the 5 poorest countries in South America.
