<hdr>The World Factbook 1994: Niger<nl>Economy</hdr><body>
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<item><hi format=bold>Overview:</hi> Niger's economy is centered on subsistence agriculture, animal husbandry, and re-export trade, and increasingly less on uranium, its major export throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Uranium revenues dropped by almost 50% between 1983 and 1990. Terms of trade with Nigeria, Niger's largest regional trade partner, have improved dramatically since the 50% devaluation of the African franc in January 1994; this devaluation boosted exports of livestock, peas, onions, and the products of Niger's small cotton industry. The government relies on bilateral and multilateral aid for operating expenses and public investment, and is strongly induced to adhere to structural adjustment programs designed by the IMF and the World Bank.
<item><hi format=bold>National product:</hi> GDP—purchasing power equivalent—$5.4 billion (1993 est.)
<item><hi format=bold>National product real growth rate:</hi> 1.9% (1991 est.)
<item><hi format=bold>National product per capita:</hi> $650 (1993 est.)
<item><hi format=bold>Industrial production:</hi> growth rate -2.7% (1991 est.); accounts for 13% of GDP
<item><hi format=bold>Electricity:</hi>
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<item>• <hi format=ital>capacity:</hi> 105,000 kW
<item>• <hi format=ital>production:</hi> 230 million kWh
<item>• <hi format=ital>consumption per capita:</hi> 30 kWh (1991)
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<item><hi format=bold>Industries:</hi> cement, brick, textiles, food processing, chemicals, slaughterhouses, and a few other small light industries; uranium mining began in 1971
<item><hi format=bold>Agriculture:</hi> accounts for roughly 40% of GDP and 90% of labor force; cash crops—cowpeas, cotton, peanuts; food crops—millet, sorghum, cassava, rice; livestock—cattle, sheep, goats; self-sufficient in food except in drought years
<item><hi format=bold>Economic aid:</hi>
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<item>• <hi format=ital>recipient:</hi> US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $380 million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-89), $3.165 billion; OPEC bilateral aid (1979-89), $504 million; Communist countries (1970-89), $61 million
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<item><hi format=bold>Currency:</hi> 1 CFA franc (CFAF)=100 centimes
<item>• <hi format=ital>note:</hi> the official rate is pegged to the French franc, and beginning 12 January 1994, the CFA franc was devalued to CFAF 100 per French franc from CFAF 50 at which it had been fixed since 1948
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<item><hi format=bold>Fiscal year:</hi> 1 October–30 September