Yearbook 2016

Uruguay. According to countryaah, the current population of Uruguay is 3,473,741. The financial worries gathered over President Tabaré Vázquez during the year. Growth that has been high since the left alliance Breda front (Frente Amplio, FA) came to power in 2005 stopped and the forecast for 2016 fell to only 0.5%.

Uruguay Population 2016

In May, the government was forced to declare that income tax increases were to wait in 2017 to overcome the budget deficit, which corresponded to 3.6% of GDP. At the same time, inflation for the first time in ten years rose to over 10%.

All in all, the economic situation led to increased dissatisfaction with the government. The opposition accused President Vázquez of lying when, during the 2014 election campaign, he promised that no tax increases would be considered during his term in office. Moreover, rising inflation caused leading unions to strike with strikes to keep wages in line with price increases.

  • Abbreviation Finder: Check to see how the 3-letter abbreviation of URU stands for the nation of Uruguay in geography.

Vice President Raúl Sendic, who was also head of the country’s fuel authority (ANCAP) and considered by many to be the FA’s next big name, ended up in blustery weather after it turned out that he was lying about an academic title. Within the government coalition, there was a split between the leftist Sendic and the more center-minded finance minister Danilo Astori. Among other things, Astori, as well as large parts of the opposition, questioned Sendic’s administration of ANCAP, which was drawn with debts amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars. Opinion polls also showed that Vázquez’s popularity more than halved during his first year as president, from 78% to 36%.

According to thereligionfaqs, the dissatisfaction with the FA seemed to favor the two historic parties of power in Uruguay, the Blanco Party and the Colorado Party, whose power monopoly was broken by the FA in 2005, ahead of the next presidential election in 2019. But instead, the political capital seemed to go to the People’s Party (Partido de la gente), a party that in November was registered by the wealthy businessman Edgardo Novick. Although he belongs in the private business world, he is not a harmless political opponent. For example, he came second in the mayor’s election in the country’s largest city Montevideo 2015 with a support corresponding to a significant portion of the country’s total electorate.