Paraguay was losing its natural semi humid forests in the country ’ s western regions at a rate of 15. 000 hectares at a randomly studied 2 month period in 2010, Paraguay ’ s parliament refused in 2009 to pass a law that would have stopped cutting of natural forests altogether.

Reforms in fiscal and monetary policy also have improved Paraguay ’ s economy.

Nevertheless, urban unemployment and underemployment have been problems throughout Paraguay ’ s history.

Paraguay ’ s economy ( GDP ) grew 5, 8 % in 2008, fastest growing sector being agriculture with 10, 5 % growth

It is Paraguay ’ s largest and most consistent source of employment, employing about 45 percent of the working population.

Paraguay ’ s eastern plains as well as the Chaco support the country ’ s dairy and ranching industry.

Behind soybeans, beef exports make up a significant part of Paraguay ’ s agriculture sector.

However, in 2004 Paraguay ’ s meat production and exports rebounded.

As a result of rising international prices and the recovery of important markets like Chile or Russia, Paraguay ’ s meat exports rose to US $ 143 million in 2004.

Paraguay ’ s forests adequately meet domestic needs for lumber and fuelwood.

However, logging for export, both legally and illegally, has thinned Paraguay ’ s once abundant forests, resulting in a ban on the export of logs since the 1970s.

The industrial sector produces about 25 percent of Paraguay ’ s gross domestic product ( GDP ) and employs about 31 percent of the labor force.

Paraguay ’ s primary manufacturing focus is on food and beverages.

The services sector made up nearly 50 percent of Paraguay ’ s gross domestic product in 2004 and employed about 19 percent of Paraguay ’ s working population.

In 2003 Paraguay ’ s hotel occupancy rate was 38 percent.

Paraguay ’ s banking and financial services industry is still recovering from the liquidity crisis of 1995, when news of widespread corruption resulted in the closure of several significant banks.

Reform efforts spurred by the International Monetary Fund ( IMF ) and World Bank helped restore some credibility to Paraguay ’ s banking industry.

Paraguay ’ s Central Bank exists to stabilize the financial sector, making sure that another run on banks, such as the one that occurred in 1995, does not recur.

A system of preferences — which consists of market opening lists, special cooperation programs ( business rounds, preinvestment, financing, technological support ) and countervailing measures on behalf of the landlocked countries — has been granted to the countries deemed to be less developed ( Bolivia, Ecuador and Paraguay ), to favour their full participation in the integration process.

National and per capita income had fallen sharply, the Central Bank's practice of handing out soft loans to regime cronies was spurring inflation and a black market, and Argentina's economic woes were making themselves felt in Paraguay.

Paraguay has a market economy characterized by a large informal sector.

Instability in the economy and a large black market have hampered development of the formal services sector in Paraguay.

For many years, Paraguay served as a central market for trafficable, duty-free goods.

During his rule, he encouraged a free market program, participated in the Brady bonds plan to alleviate foreign debt obligations, and was a co-founder of the Mercosur, along with the presidents of Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina, which took effect in the Treaty of Asunción on 1991.

Originally based in Braintree in Essex, Asquith employed 30 full-time craftsmen who handmade over 1, 000 vehicles, many exported to countries as far away as Paraguay, Japan and USA, though Germany has always been the biggest export market.

Rio de la Plata, with the vice regal capital in Buenos Aires, encompassed modern day Argentina, Uruguay Paraguay and Bolivia.

Meijer escaped and lived in Paraguay for years, until he was discovered by Peter R. de Vries and imprisoned there.

Just after independence was achieved, Paraguay was governed from 1814 by the dictator José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, who closed the borders of the country and prohibited trade or any relation with the exterior until his death in 1840.

The Sakishima Islands beyond the straights are antipodal to Paraguay, from the Brazilian border almost to Asunción, with Ishigaki overlapping San Isidro de Curuguaty, and the uninhabited Senkaku Islands surrounding Villarrica.

* 1811 – Paraguay: Pedro Juan Caballero, Fulgencio Yegros and José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia start actions to depose the Spanish governor

Paraguay declared its independence from Spain in 1811 ; since then, the country has had a history of dictatorial governments, from the Utopian regime of José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia ( El Supremo ) to the suicidal reign of Francisco Solano López, who nearly devastated the country in warfare against the combined forces of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay from 1865 through 1870.

Much of the earliest history of Paraguay comes from the Spanish colonization, beginning indirectly in 1516 with the Juan Díaz de Solís ' failed expedition to the Río de la Plata.

Accompanied by Domingo Martínez de Irala, Ayolas again sailed upstream until he reached a small bay on the Río Paraguay, which he named Candelaria, the present-day Fuerte Olimpo.

After Mendoza returned unexpectedly to Spain, two other members of the expedition -- Juan de Salazar de Espinosa and Gonzalo de Mendoza -- explored the Río Paraguay and met up with Irala.

The arrival of Father Pedro Fernández de la Torre on April 2, 1556, as the first bishop of Asunción marked the establishment of the Roman Catholic Church in Paraguay.

In 1617, the Río de la Plata Province was divided into two smaller provinces: Paraguay, with Asunción as its capital, and Río de la Plata, with headquarters in Buenos Aires.

In 1776, the crown created the Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata ; Paraguay, which had been subordinate to Lima, now became an outpost of Buenos Aires.

Litograph of José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, a 19th century ruler of Paraguay, with a mate ( beverage ) | mate and its respective bombilla.

From Salto del Guairá, where the river enters Paraguay, the Paraná River flows 800 km to its juncture with the Río Paraguay and then continues southward to the Río de la Plata Estuary at Buenos Aires, Argentina.

es: Geografía de Paraguay

Three years after Paraguay overthrew Spanish authority and gained its independence, the country's economy was controlled by the autarchic policies of José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia ( 1814 – 40 ), who closed the young nation's borders to virtually all international trade.

With assistance from the Organization of American States ( OAS ), the Inter-American Development Bank ( IDB ), and the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America ( ECLA ), in 1962 Paraguay established the Technical Planning Secretariat ( Secretaría Técnica de Planificación — STP ), the major economic planning arm of the government.

es: Economía de Paraguay