El Salvador: Economy
Economy
El Salvador's economy has traditionally been agricultural, but services and industry now employ a greater percentage of the workforce and account for a much higher percentage of the gross domestic product. El Salvador's economy was adversely affected by its 12-year civil war. Beginning in the early 1990s, however, attempts were made to revive the country's economic life, and the economy had recovered by the beginning of 2001, when El Salvador adopted the U.S. dollar as its official currency.
About half of the land is used for either crops or pasturage. Corn is the chief subsistence crop, and rice, beans, oilseeds, and sorghum are also grown; coffee and sugar are the major cash crops. Food and beverage processing is important and petroleum, chemicals, fertilizer, textiles, furniture, and light metals are among El Salvador's leading manufactures. The Inter-American Highway crosses El Salvador and forms the heart of an excellent transportation system that links San Salvador with the ports of La Unión, Acajutla, and La Libertad and the inland cities of San Miguel and Santa Ana.
Offshore assembly products, coffee, sugar, shrimp, textiles, and chemicals are El Salvador's main exports. The leading imports are raw materials, consumer and capital goods, fuel, food, petroleum, and electricity. The United States is by far the largest trading partner.
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