ABSTRACT
Colombia, with a population of about 33 million and a per capita income of about $1,400, is in broadly the same size and income group as Malaysia and Thailand, both in absolute terms and in relation to its own region. It is the largest member of the Andean group, although small compared with the North American countries, including Mexico, or with Brazil. It is neither among the richest nor the poorest. A difference which may be important, however, is that it has held this position, and income level, for longer. Its period of (relatively) rapid growth was in the I97Os, at an average of about 6% p.a. (a rise, but not a transformation, from 5% in the 196Os), with only 3.4% p.a. in the 1980s and the early 1990s. On the other hand, although its growth slowed, it did not suffer the absolute fall in the 1980s experienced in most other major Latin American countries. It is not a country which has undergone recent major economic changes; its disruptions have been political and social.
