Economy — Uruguay
GDP, employment, industries, public finance, and currency.
Profile updated 2026-06-02
⚡ Economy at a glance
GDP, employment, industries, public finance, and currency. Key figure for Uruguay: Uruguay has a free market economy characterized by an export-oriented agricultural sector, a well-educated workforce, and high levels of social spending. Uruguay has sought to expand trade within the Common Market of the South (Mercosur) and with non-Mercosur members, and President VAZQUEZ has maintained his predec…
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Economic overview
- Economic Overview
Uruguay has a free market economy characterized by an export-oriented agricultural sector, a well-educated workforce, and high levels of social spending.
Uruguay has sought to expand trade within the Common Market of the South (Mercosur) and with non-Mercosur members, and President VAZQUEZ has maintained his predecessor's mix of pro-market policies and a strong social safety net.
Following financial difficulties in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Uruguay's economic growth averaged 8% annually during the 2004-08 period.
The 2008-09 global financial crisis put a brake on Uruguay's vigorous growth, which decelerated to 2.6% in 2009.
Nevertheless, the country avoided a recession and kept growth rates positive, mainly through higher public expenditure and investment; GDP growth reached 8.9% in 2010 but slowed markedly in the 2012-16 period as a result of a renewed slowdown in the global economy and in Uruguay's main trade partners and Mercosur counterparts, Argentina and Brazil.
Reforms in those countries should give Uruguay an economic boost.
Growth picked up in 2017.
- Industries
food processing, electrical machinery, transportation equipment, petroleum products, textiles, chemicals, beverages
- GDP - per capita (PPP)
$21,800.00 (USD)
- GDP - real growth rate
2.8%
GDP & growth
- GDP - Gross Domestic Product (PPP)
$75,060,000,000 (USD)
- GDP Per Capita
$21,800.00 (USD)
- GDP - real growth rate
2.8%
- GDP - official exchange rate
$56,800,000,000 (USD)
- GDP - composition, by end use
- household consumption: 65.9%
- government consumption: 13.6%
- investment in fixed capital: 22.4%
- investment in inventories: 0.5%
- exports of goods and services: 23.8%
- imports of goods and services: -26.2%
- GDP by Sector- agriculture
7.5%
- GDP by Sector- Industry
20.6%
- GDP by Sector- services
71.9%
- Industrial Growth Rate
16.5%
Prices & money
- Inflation Rate
6.9%
- Exchange Rate per US Dollar
Uruguayan peso (UYU)
- Currency Name and Code
Uruguayan Peso (UYU)
- Fiscal Year
calendar year
- Commercial Bank Prime Lending Rate
11.3%
Employment & labor
- Labor Force
1,637,000
- Unemployment Rate
6.8%
- Major Industries
food processing, electrical machinery, transportation equipment, petroleum products, textiles, chemicals, beverages
- Agriculture Products
- rice, wheat, corn, barley
- livestock
- fish
- Population Below Poverty Line
20.9%
- Child Labor - # of children ages 5-14
51,879
- Child Labor - % of children ages 5-14
7%
Public finance
- Annual Budget
$17,500,000,000 (USD)
- Public Debt (% of GDP)
81.9%
- Budget Surplus or Deficit - percent of GDP
-2.6%
- Taxes and other revenues - percent of GDP
30%
