Cape Verde

The uninhabited islands were discovered and colonized by the Portuguese in the 15th century; Cape Verde subsequently became a trading center for African slaves and later an important coaling and resupply stop for whaling and transatlantic shipping. Following independence in 1975, and a tentative interest in unification with Guinea-Bissau, a one-party system was established and maintained until multi-party elections were held in 1990. Cape Verde continues to exhibit one of Africa's most stable democratic governments. Repeated droughts during the second half of the 20th century caused significant hardship and prompted heavy emigration. As a result, Cape Verde's expatriate population is greater than its domestic one. Most Cape Verdeans have both African and Portuguese antecedents.
==Economical characteristics==
* Currency: Cape Verdean escudo (ISO code: CVE)
* Central bank discount rate: 7.5% (31 December 2008)
* Commercial banks lending rate: 9.99% (31 December 2008)
* Stock of money (M1): $563.4 million (31 December 2008)
* Quasi money (with M1 makes M2): $721.3 million (31 December 2008)
===Statistics===
Statistic / Year 	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005 	2006 	2007 	2008
GDP (million USD)World Bank. "Cape Verde: GDP", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-10-01. 	583 	531 	550 	616 	797 	925 	999 	1 144 	1 358 	1 592
Govt. debt (% of GDP)World Bank. "Cape Verde: government debt", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-10-01. 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
Govt. revenue (% of GDP)World Bank. "Cape Verde: government revenue", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-10-01. 	 	 	 	 	 	 	26.848	28.792	30.574	32.860
Govt. expenses (% of GDP)World Bank. "Cape Verde: government expenses", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-10-01.	 	 	 	 	 	 	29.415	28.675	27.679	25.771
Debt to revenue (years) 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
==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==
* Cape Verde on Wikipedia
* Central bank of Cape Verde
* Country profile (pdf) from the Enterprise Studies page (part of the The World Bank Group)
* BBC country profile
Category:Countries