cy is fiscally
conservative, but pragmatic, focusing on targeting inflation and
liberalizing trade as means to increase job growth and household
income.
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
Some fishing takes
place in adjacent waters. There is a potential source of income from
harvesting finfish and krill. The islands receive income from
postage stamps produced in the UK, sale of fishing licenses, and
harbor and landing fees from tourist vessels. Tourism from
specialized cruise ships is increasing rapidly.
Southern Ocean
Fisheries in 2000-01 (1 July to 30 June) landed
112,934 metric tons, of which 87% was krill and 11% Patagonian
toothfish. International agreements were adopted in late 1999 to
reduce illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, which in the
2000-01 season landed, by one estimate, 8,376 metric tons of
Patagonian and antarctic toothfish. In the 2000-01 antarctic summer
12,248 tourists, most of them seaborne, visited the Southern Ocean
and Antarctica, compared to 14,762 the previous year.
Spain
The Spanish economy boomed from 1986 to 1990, averaging five
percent annual growth. After a European-wide recession in the early
1990s, the Spanish economy resumed moderate growth starting in 1994.
Spain's mixed capitalist economy supports a GDP that on a per capita
basis is 80% that of the four leading West European economies. The
center-right government of former President AZNAR successfully
worked to gain admission to the first group of countries launching
the European single currency (the euro) on 1 January 1999. The AZNAR
administration continued to advocate liberalization, privatization,
and deregulation of the economy and introduced some tax reforms to
that end. Unemployment fell steadily under the AZNAR administration
but remains high at 10.4%. Growth of 2.5% in 2003 and 2.6% in 2004
was satisfactory given the background of a faltering European
economy. The socialist president, RODRIGUEZ ZAPATERO, has initiated
economic and social reforms that are generally popular among the
masses of people but that are anathema to religious and other
conservative elements. Adjusting to the monetary and other economic
policies of an integrated Europe, reducing unemployment, and
absorbing widespread social changes will pose challenges to Spain
over the next few years.
Spratly Islands
Economic activity is limited to commercial fi
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