The economy of Argentina is a high-income economy, Latin America's third largest, and the second largest in South America behind Brazil. The country benefits from rich natural resources, a highly literate population, an export-oriented agricultural sector, and a diversified industrial base. Argentina's economic performance has historically been very uneven, in which high economic growth alternated with severe recessions, particularly during the late twentieth century, and income maldistribution and poverty increased. Early in the twentieth century Argentina had one of the highest per capita GDP levels in the world and the third largest economy in the developing world. Today a high-income economy, Argentina maintains a relatively high quality of life and GDP per capita.