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- Economy
-
- Overview: About 85% of the population live in absolute poverty.
- Agriculture is mainly small-scale subsistence farming and
- employs 65% of the work force. The majority of the population
- does not have ready access to safe drinking water, adequate
- medical care, or sufficient food. Few social assistance
- programs exist, and the lack of employment opportunities
- remains the most critical problem facing the economy.
-
- GDP: $2.4 billion, per capita $380; real growth rate 0.3%
- (1988 est.).
-
- Inflation rate (consumer prices): 5.8% (1988).
-
- Unemployment rate: 50% (1988 est.).
-
- Budget: revenues $252 million; expenditures $357 million,
- including capital expenditures of $NA million (1988).
-
- Exports: $200 million (f.o.b., FY88); commodities--light
- manufactures 65%, coffee 17%, other agriculture 8%, other
- products 10%; partners--US 77%, France 5%, Italy 4%, FRG 3%,
- other industrial 9%, less developed countries 2% (FY86).
-
- Imports: $344 million (c.i.f., FY88); commodities--machines
- and manufactures 36%, food and beverages 21%, petroleum
- products 11%, fats and oils 12%, chemicals 12%; partners--US 65%,
- Netherlands Antilles 6%, Japan 5%, France 4%, Canada 2%,
- Asia 2% (FY86).
-
- External debt: $820 million (December 1988).
-
- Industrial production: growth rate -2% (FY87).
-
- Electricity: 230,000 kW capacity; 482 million kWh produced,
- 75 kWh per capita (1989).
-
- Industries: sugar refining, textiles, flour milling, cement
- manufacturing, bauxite mining, tourism, light assembly industries
- based on imported parts.
-
- Agriculture: accounts for 32% of GDP and employs 65% of
- work force; mostly small-scale subsistence farms; commercial
- crops--coffee and sugarcane; staple crops--rice, corn, sorghum,
- mangoes; shortage of wheat flour.
-
- Aid: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-88), $638 million;
- Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments
- (1970-87), $627 million.
-
- Currency: gourde (plural--gourdes); 1 gourde (G) = 100 centimes.
-
- Exchange rates: gourdes (G) per US$1--5.0 (fixed rate).
-
- Fiscal year: 1 October-30 September.
-