Honduras

Once part of Spain's vast empire in the New World, Honduras became an independent nation in 1821. After two and a half decades of mostly military rule, a freely elected civilian government came to power in 1982. During the 1980s, Honduras proved a haven for anti-Sandinista contras fighting the Marxist Nicaraguan Government and an ally to Salvadoran Government forces fighting leftist guerrillas. The country was devastated by Hurricane Mitch in 1998, which killed about 5,600 people and caused approximately $2 billion in damage. Since then, the economy has slowly rebounded.

Economical characteristics

 * Currency: Lempira (ISO code: HNL)
 * Central bank discount rate: NA%
 * Commercial banks lending rate: 17.94% (31 December 2008)
 * Stock of money (M1): $1.633 billion (31 December 2008)
 * Quasi money (with M1 makes M2): $5.574 billion (31 December 2008)

Notable events:

 * Banking crisis: 1999, 2001, 2002
 * Years in inflation: 3.5% (share of years 1838-2009 with annual inflation above 20 per cent per annum)
 * Public default: 1828-1867, 1873-1925, 1981-2009(external)

Links

 * Honduras on Wikipedia
 * Central bank of Honduras
 * Country profile (pdf) from the Enterprise Studies page (part of the The World Bank Group)
 * Studies from the Library of Congress (1986-1998)
 * BBC country profile
 * A New City in Honduras Paul Romer, February 2011
 * Who Wants to Buy Honduras? by Adam Davidson, May 2012
 * Startup City Redux by Tom W. Bell, June 2013
 * Honduras: A New Hope? by Anthony Caprio, September 2014