The level of gross domestic product (GDP) per head is widely used to measure economic performance, growth rates, and differences in the standard of living between countries. Although all Latin American countries have produced estimates of GDP per head since 1950, the information for earlier years is much less systematic. This appendix brings together all of the available information as consistently as possible to provide statistics for 1913, 1928, 1980, and 2000.

The basic source is CEPAL (1978), which gives time-series data for all Latin American countries (except Cuba and Puerto Rico) on GDP at factor cost using 1970 prices. The GDP figures therefore differ from GDP at market prices because they exclude net indirect taxes. The data on individual countries are in local currency (at 1970 prices) and can be converted to U.S. dollars by using the appropriate exchange-rate. I have used annual average exchange rates in 1970, as reported in World Bank (1983). These are shown in the first column of Table A.3.1

These exchange rates are official and therefore differ from the purchasing-power parity (PPP) exchange rates used in many international comparisons. PPP exchange rates are important in comparisons between developing and developed countries. They are less relevant in comparisons between a group of relatively similar developing countries. Even so, PPP rates, as reported by CEPAL (1978), are also given in Table A.3.1 They are uniformly lower than official exchange rates, and the proportionate difference is shown in the third column.