Uruguayan Market

The market is busy and full, happy shop owners eye the purses of every passerby with the skill of someone who secretly has x-ray vision. You don't know what to say, so you sit and clutch your purse until the very last moment of the day, hoping that you can grab the goods for half price. Good thing you brought your lucky bargain hunting charm with you, or else you would be paying double for what granny could get for pennies. Uruguay is one of the most economically developed countries in South America, with a high GDP per capita and the 52nd highest Human Development Index in the world as of 2010, and the first by human development in Latin America, when inequality is factored in. Uruguay is also noted for its low levels of corruption, being ranked by Transparency International as the second least corrupt country in Latin America (behind Chile). Reader's Digest ranked Uruguay as the ninth "Most livable and greenest" country in the world, and first in all the Americas. Uruguay is ranked highest in Latin America on the Global Peace Index. Uruguay was the first South American country to legalize same-sex and different-sex civil unions at a national level, and to allow gay adoption. Uruguay and Bolivia were the only countries in the Americas which did not go into recession (2 consecutive quarters of retraction) as a result of the Late-2000s financial crisis. Uruguay is a representative democratic republic with a presidential system. The members of government are elected for a five-year term by a universal suffrage system. Uruguay is a unitary state: justice, education, health, security, foreign policy and defence are all administered nationwide. The Executive Power is exercised by the president and a cabinet of 13 ministers.