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The importance of Buenos Aires, the country’s chief port and the largest in South America, to the national economy is related to Argentina’s overwhelming dependence on the production and export of agricultural commodities. Buenos Aires is the country’s chief point of consumption, processing, and shipping. Unlike much of the rest of the country, the city has a varied economy, which helps it maintain a degree of stability despite the rampant inflation that has often burdened the entire country.
The port of Buenos Aires receives ships from all over the world that deliver machine-made goods and consumer durables and leave with grains or agricultural by-products, such as food oils. And yet, as with so much of the city, the port facilities are old and inefficient. The port facilities were privatized in 1994, and new investments in infrastructure were begun; however, it is still common at harvest time to see long lines of trucks at the port entrance, waiting to transfer their loads to one of the ships lying offshore, which in turn are waiting to use the narrow channel into the port. An inadequate road system leading to the various terminals also continues to hamper growth. Serious proposals to move the port to another, better harbour have met with little response.
Manufacturing
Buenos Aires’s main industries include food processing (meat, fish, and grain), metalworking, automobile assembly, oil refining, printing and publishing, and the manufacture of textiles, beverages, paper, and chemicals. Heavy industry has grown much faster in metropolitan Buenos Aires than elsewhere in Argentina. More than one-third of the industrial capacity of the country is in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area, and about one-half of all manufacturing jobs are located there. About one-fifth of Greater Buenos Aires’s labour force works in manufacturing. Larger industrial and manufacturing establishments have been located traditionally in the neighbourhoods of Barracas and Nueva Pompeya, respectively south and west of San Telmo, but they are becoming increasingly prominent in the suburbs.
Finance and other services
The city virtually monopolizes the banking activity of the country. Banks in Buenos Aires hold the largest share of the country’s bank deposits, a large portion of which are held by foreign investors. The Central Bank of the Republic of Argentina controls the federal banking system. The Buenos Aires stock exchange, along with specialized markets for meat, cattle, fruit, and grain, makes the city the dominant stock and commodities trading centre in the country. The financial district is concentrated just north of the Plaza de Mayo.
Service industries account for about two-fifths of the jobs in the metropolitan area. The number of tourists in Buenos Aires has increased dramatically since 2001, when an economic collapse afflicted the country, and the city is one of the most visited in South America.
Transportation
One of the world’s better urban transportation systems evolved serendipitously in Buenos Aires around the unique colectivo, or microbus, an Argentine invention. Half the size of a typical city bus, it is usually crammed with people and often barely pauses as passengers jump on and off. The drivers, who are generally owners of the cooperative that operates the bus line, are often colourful characters, noted for their frequent lively commentary on everything from weather to politics to football. The microbus driver has become a symbol of the frenetic pace of life in the city. Travelers are seldom more than one block from a bus, and often they have a choice of buses to take.
Buenos Aires has Latin America’s oldest subway system; its first line opened in 1913. The subway was designed to accommodate the city in the mid-20th century, but its adequacy for a modern, bustling metropolis had diminished toward the end of the century. After the system was privatized in the early 1990s, however, many stations were refurbished and lines were repaired. The first new subway line built since the 1940s opened in 2007.
Most professionals and other white-collar workers commute to the city centre by car or train from the northern zones. Blue-collar workers commute across town, from residential to industrial sections, generally by colectivo. Though most city traffic is regulated by automatic traffic lights, the city’s residents are notorious for ignoring them. For many years, two major streets, Calle Florida and Calle Lavalle, were traditionally closed to motor traffic during part of the day to allow for a free flow of pedestrians. Now, however, Calle Florida is reserved for pedestrians at all times. Traffic-calming measures, such as speed bumps and closed streets, have been proposed as a means of controlling noise, pollution, and congestion in many neighbourhoods, but as of the early 21st century little progress had been made in implementing these measures.
Buenos Aires’s highway system includes several expressways that radiate out from the city centre to connect it with Avenida General Paz, which circles most of the city, thus forming a spokelike pattern. Other main avenues connect Plaza de Mayo with outlying neighbourhoods. The city is the terminus of every major railway in the country. There are also electric suburban lines connecting the city with the towns of Tigre and Moreno.
The international airport of Ezeiza, Don Torcuato airport, and El Palomar, the military airport, are located outside the city limits in Esteban Echeverría, Tigre, and Morón, respectively. They are connected to the city by expressways. Jorge Newbery Airport, the Buenos Aires city airport, lies within the Federal District and serves domestic airlines, as well as those that operate to and from neighbouring countries.
High-speed catamaran and ferry passenger services across the Río de la Plata link Buenos Aires to Colonia del Sacramento and Montevideo in Uruguay.