The fourth largest continent in the world, South America comprises of twelve countries. It has the huge Amazon River, the largest tropical rain forest in the world and Andes Mountains along the length of the continent. On the west is the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east is the Atlantic Ocean. To its northwest lie North America and the Caribbean Sea. In an area of almost 6.9 million square miles, it has 12% of the earth’s land with nearly 379 million people. South America has the fifth largest population in the world.
It was first inhabited by people crossing the Bering Land Bridge, which is now the Bering Strait. Earliest agricultural production in South America was in 6500 BC, with potatoes, chillies and beans cultivation in the highlands of the Amazon Basin. Manioc, which remains a staple foodstuff today, was being cultivated as early as 2000 BC. Fishing took place along the coast to make fish as a major source of food. The Irrigation systems that was developed supported the rise of an agrarian society.
Due to histories of high inflation in nearly all South American countries, interest-rates remain high and investment low. Interest rates are about 22% in Venezuela and 23% in Suriname. The exception is Chile, which has been implementing free market economic policies since seventies and increased its social spending since the return of democratic rule in the early nineties. This brought economic stability and reduced interest rates to low single digits.
South America depends on the exports of goods and natural resources. On an exchange rate basis Brazil leads with exports at $138 billion dollars followed by Chile at 58 billion and Argentina with 46 billion. The economic gap between the rich and poor in most South American nations is larger than in most other continents. In Venezuela, Paraguay, Bolivia and many other South American countries, the richest twenty percent own over sixty percent of the nation's wealth, while the poorest twenty percent own less than five percent. This is testified in large South American cities where shacks and slums exist next to skyscrapers and luxury apartments.
