The Argentine Republic is the second largest country in South America, after Brazil.  Its population (July 2005 estimate) is approximately 39.5 million with a median age of 29.42 years.  The population growth rate is 0.98 percent per year, and the fertility rate is slightly above that of the United States at 2.19 children per woman.  The country is 97 percent white, with the remaining three percent made up of Amerindian, mixed white-Amerindian and other races.  The country is 92 percent Catholic (less than 20 percent practicing, two percent Protestant, two percent Jewish and four percent other.  The official language is Spanish, but English, Italian, German and French are also spoken.  Argentina’s literacy rate is 97.1 percent (0.1 percent higher than that of the United States).  The country is divided into 23 provinces, with one autonomous city (distrito federal, comparable to the District of Columbia), Buenos Aires.

Argentina’s legal system is a mixture of the U.S. and European legal systems.  Its government is organized similarly to our own, with a President (Nestor Kirchner since May 2003) and Vice President (Daniel Scioli since May 2003) heading the Executive Branch (both of whom serve four year-terms); a bicameral National Congress with a 72-member Senate elected by direct vote (one-third every two years for a six-year term) and a 257-seat Chamber of Deputies elected by direct vote (one-half every two years to a four-year term).  The country’s nine-member Supreme Court is appointed by the president with approval of the Senate.

Argentina’s economy over the past decade suffered problems of inflation, external debt, capital flight and budget deficits.  Growth in 2000 was a negative 0.8 percent, and the situation worsened in 2001 with the widening of spreads on Argentine bonds, massive bank withdrawals and further declines in consumer and investor confidence.  Government actions to address the economy failed.  Finally, in January 2002, Argentina abandoned the peso’s peg to the dollar and floated the currency a month later; the exchange rate plunged and real gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 10.9 percent.  By mid-year, the economy had stabilized and from 2003 to 2005, GDP grew by more than eight percent a year.  The government boosted spending ahead of the October 2005 midterm elections, but strong revenue performance will allow Argentina to exceed its budget surplus target of 3.2 percent of GDP.  Inflation is rising steadily and expected to reach 11.8 percent this year.

Argentina’s unemployment rate is 11.1 percent (9/05); 38.5 percent of the population lives below the poverty line (6/05).