{"id":75,"date":"2009-07-07T23:20:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-08T04:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philvelez.com\/blog\/?p=75"},"modified":"2009-07-07T23:20:00","modified_gmt":"2009-07-08T04:20:00","slug":"puerto-ricos-economic-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philvelez.com\/blog\/?p=75","title":{"rendered":"Puerto Rico’s Economic Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355942696139625490\"<\/a>The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico has seen its economy steadily decline prior to the global economic crisis and will likely continue to suffer after others see signs of recovery. <\/p>\n

Puerto Rico has a history of economic problems. The Puerto Rican government is much poorer than the poorest U.S. state and its economy has always relied heavily on U.S. federal aid. <\/p>\n

In March, Puerto Rico\u2019s unemployment rate jumped to 14.7 percent from 12 percent in January. It was listed as 14.3 percent last April. However the Government Development Bank (GDB<\/a>) for Puerto Rico, an agency that protects the Commonwealth\u2019s fiscal stability, registered Puerto Rico\u2019s unemployment rate at 15.8 percent, the highest in 13 years. <\/p>\n