Argentina's economy has been rebounding since its near collapse in 2001, with an impressive growth rate of about 8% since Kirchner took office. Argentina has played a positive role in promoting human rights and democratic institutions in the hemisphere, particularly in Haiti. Argentina benefits from rich natural resources, a highly educated population, a globally competitive agricultural sector, and a diversified industrial base.

Argentina is bordered by Chile on the west, Bolivia and Paraguay on the north, Brazil and Uruguay on the northeast, and the Atlantic Ocean on the east. Argentina's principal imports are machinery, motor vehicles, chemicals, metals, plastics, and other manufactured goods. Argentina was the only country from Latin America to participate in the 1991 Gulf War under mandate of the United Nations. Argentina's coastline varies between areas of sand dunes and cliffs. Argentina is a South American country, constituted as a federation of twenty-four provinces and an autonomous city.

Argentina is divided into four major natural regions: the Andes, the northern plains and Andes foothills, the Pampas, and Patagonia. Major sources and definitions Geography Second in South America only to Brazil in size and population, Argentina is a plain, rising from the Atlantic to the Chilean border and the towering Andes peaks. Mesopotamia, a broad, flat plain between the Parana and Uraguay Rivers in northern Argentina, is wet, swampy and extremely hot during the summer.

The name Argentina derives from the Spanish word for silver, which is what early Spanish explorers sought when they first reached the region in the sixteenth century. The best way to use imported electrical equipment in Argentina is to purchase an adapter once there. The dollar and the euro are very strong in Argentina as of early 2006, so this has indeed become a shopping paradise for tourists from these regions. The phone numbering plan in Argentina is hopelessly complicated for unexpecting foreigners.

Try to stay out of trouble and just remember that many people in the big cities of Argentina are dangerous. The Andes in Argentina contain advancing glaciers (in the south), and many toothy-edged peaks, as well as Cerro Aconcagua, the tallest mountain in South America. The climate of Argentina varies from subtropical in the north to cold and windswept in the south, with temperate and dry areas found throughout much of the country. Although Argentina has a variety of minerals, they are of local importance and are not completely adequate to support the country's industries.

The economy was hurt by Brazil's recession and currency devaluation in the late 1990s, but the pegging of the peso to the dollar combined with Argentina's own economic problems resulted in economic collapse in 2001.