Banana republic ( English Banana republic , Spanish República bananera ) - a term used to refer to the countries of Latin America in which there was political instability together with dependence on limited agricultural production. The main signs of a banana republic are significant inequality in the distribution of the national product, backward infrastructure , education and the economy , strong dependence on foreign capital, relatively high inflation , budget deficits and declining national currency exchange rates.
In a narrow sense, it was used in relation to the countries of Central America , where for a long time the American fruit company Chiquita (formerly United Fruit Company , also known as United Brands) had and has had a strong influence on the economy and politics of the countries of the region (in particular , organized several military interventions, including the invasion of Guatemala , and a large number of coups).
The term “banana republic” was first used by O. Henry in the novel “ Kings and Cabbage ” in 1904 ( Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky used the expression “fruit republic” in Russian).
In the modern language, the term “banana republic” refers to countries with an undeveloped economy, a large percentage of the poor, with a significant inequality in the distribution of the national product, and general corruption of corrupt officials.