eal GDP growth recovered strongly, reaching 8% in 1997. In 1998,
international financial turmoil caused by Russia's problems and
increasing investor anxiety over Brazil produced the highest
domestic interest rates in more than three years, halving the growth
rate of the economy. Conditions worsened in 1999 with GDP falling by
3%. President Fernando DE LA RUA, who took office in December 1999,
sponsored tax increases and spending cuts to reduce the deficit,
which had ballooned to 2.5% of GDP in 1999. Growth in 2000 was a
disappointing 0.8%, as both domestic and foreign investors remained
skeptical of the government's ability to pay debts and maintain its
fixed exchange rate with the US dollar. One bright spot at the start
of 2001 was the IMF's offer of $13.7 billion in support.

Armenia:
Under the old Soviet central planning system, Armenia had
developed a modern industrial sector, supplying machine tools,
textiles, and other manufactured goods to sister republics in
exchange for raw materials and energy. Since the implosion of the
USSR in December 1991, Armenia has switched to small-scale
agriculture away from the large agroindustrial complexes of the
Soviet era. The agricultural sector has long-term needs for more
investment and updated technology. The privatization of industry has
been at a slower pace, but has been given renewed emphasis by the
current administration. Armenia is a food importer, and its mineral
deposits (gold, bauxite) are small. The ongoing conflict with
Azerbaijan over the ethnic Armenian-dominated region of
Nagorno-Karabakh and the breakup of the centrally directed economic
system of the former Soviet Union contributed to a severe economic
decline in the early 1990s. By 1994, however, the Armenian
Government had launched an ambitious IMF-sponsored economic program
that has resulted in positive growth rates in 1995-2000. Armenia
also managed to slash inflation and to privatize most small- and
medium-sized enterprises. The chronic energy shortages Armenia
suffered in recent years have been largely offset by the energy
supplied by one of its nuclear power plants at Metsamor. Armenia's
severe trade imbalance, importing three times its exports, has been
offset somewhat by international aid, domestic restructuring of the
economy, and foreign direct investment.

Aruba:
Tourism is the mainstay of the Aruban economy, although
off