Colombia

Colombia was one of the three countries that emerged from the collapse of Gran Colombia in 1830 (the others are Ecuador and Venezuela). A four-decade long conflict between government forces and anti-government insurgent groups, principally the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) heavily funded by the drug trade, escalated during the 1990s. The insurgents lack the military or popular support necessary to overthrow the government and violence has been decreasing since about 2002, but insurgents continue attacks against civilians and large areas of the countryside are under guerrilla influence or are contested by security forces. More than 31,000 former paramilitaries had demobilized by the end of 2006 and the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) as a formal organization had ceased to function. In the wake of the paramilitary demobilization, emerging criminal groups arose, whose members include some former paramilitaries. The Colombian Government has stepped up efforts to reassert government control throughout the country, and now has a presence in every one of its administrative departments. However, neighboring countries worry about the violence spilling over their borders.
==Economical characteristics==
* Currency: Peso (ISO code: COP)
* Central bank discount rate: 3.5% (31 November 2009)
* Commercial banks lending rate: 9.57% (31 December 2009)
* Stock of money (M1): $25.01 billion (31 December 2009)
* Quasi money (with M1 makes M2): $26.57 billion (31 December 2008)
===Statistics===
Statistic / Year 	1999 	2000 	2001 	2002 	2003 	2004 	2005 	2006 	2007 	2008
GDP (million USD)World Bank. "Colombia: GDP", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-28. 	86 301	94 053	92 877	93 016	91 702	113 774	144 581	162 347	207 786	243 765
Govt. debt (% of GDP)World Bank. "Colombia: government debt", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-28. 	 	 	 	 	56.702	55.674 	78.127 	56.968 	49.085 	54.297
Govt. revenue (% of GDP)World Bank. "Colombia: government revenue", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-28. 	 	 	16.063	14.801	17.622	20.261 	23.496 	21.781 	24.040 	23.459
Govt. expenses (% of GDP)World Bank. "Colombia: government expenses", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-28.	 	 	20.842	18.595	22.132	22.928 	23.469 	24.063 	25.476 	23.702
Debt to revenue (years) 	 	 	 	 	3.218 	2.748 	3.325 	2.615 	2.042 	2.315
==References==
Note: statistical data was rounded. Different sources may use different methodologies for their estimates. Debt to revenue is calculated by dividing the two variables from their original ('unrounded') values. It represents how long it would a government take to repay its entire debt if it used its whole revenue for this purpose.
==External links==
* Colombia on Wikipedia
* Central bank of Colombia
* Country profile (pdf) from the Enterprise Studies page (part of the The World Bank Group)
* Studies from the Library of Congress (1986-1998)
* BBC country profile
Category:Countries