Drug trade's contribution to Bolivian GDP down to 1 pct

Drug trade's contribution to Bolivia's gross of domestic product (GDP) has been reduced from around 14 percent to below 1 percent, President Evo Morales said on Monday.

"The trafficking of coca and cocaine, and drug dealing as a whole, contributed 14 percent of GDP under previous neoliberal governments," he said in La Paz during the presentation of a UN report monitoring coca crops.

The cultivation and transport of coca and derived products like cocaine have dropped to less than 1 percent of Bolivian GDP, said the report.

Bolivia reduced the area under coca cultivation by 11 percent in 2014, from 23,000 to 20,400 hectares, said Antonino de Leo, representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The drug trade does not determine the country's economy any more under the leadership of the current government, so it is normal to hear positive feedback from UNODC, Morales said.

The illegal cultivation of the coca leaf has been reduced since the American DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) was expelled in 2010, the president said.

He also referred to the failed drug control policies in the past where economic compensation was handed out for every hectare of eradicated coca crops, or when the army and foreign powers intervened.

These led to people overstating the amount of hectares cleared in order to secure more resources, said Morales, adding that his anti-drug policy has shown that Bolivia "is better" with the participation of its people and without foreign interference. Endi