‘You can’t just bet everything on exports’: as its gas runs out, is Bolivia doomed to repeat history?

A fossil gas boom that lifted millions out of poverty has collapsed and inflation is rising – but not everyone believes selling gold and soya is the answer Once hailed as the “energy heart of South America”, Bolivia ’s economy was buoyed up by a fossil gas boom from 2006 to 2014.

At its height, then-president Evo Morales commissioned a gleaming presidential skyscraper and installed the world’s longest urban cable car network in La Paz, the seat of government.

Flush with cash, the country grew its GDP , expanded social programmes and halved poverty rates .

But then commodity prices plummeted and gas reserves started to dry up , bringing Bolivia’s “ economic miracle ” crashing down.

Inflation – once the region’s lowest – has soared.

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