Economy (Malaysia)
==================


     Overview:
         During the period 1988-91 booming exports helped Malaysia continue to
         recover from the severe 1985-86 recession. Real output grew by 8.8% in 1989,
         10% in 1990, and 8.6% in 1991, helped by vigorous growth in manufacturing
         output, further increases in foreign direct investment - particularly from
         Japanese and Taiwanese firms facing higher costs at home - and increased oil
         production. Malaysia has become the world's third-largest producer of
         semiconductor devices (after the US and Japan) and the world's largest
         exporter of semiconductor devices. Inflation has remained low; unemployment
         has stood at 6% of the labor force; and the government has followed prudent
         fiscal/monetary policies. The country is not self-sufficient in food, and
         some of the rural population subsist at the poverty level. Malaysia's high
         export dependence leaves it vulnerable to a recession in the OECD countries
         or a fall in world commodity prices.
     GDP:
         exchange rate conversion - $48.0 billion, per capita $2,670; real growth
         rate 8.6% (1991 est.)
     Inflation rate (consumer prices):
         4.5% (1991 est.)
     Unemployment rate:
         5.8% (1991 est.)
     Budget:
         revenues $12.2 billion; expenditures $14.4 billion, including capital
         expenditures of $3.2 billion (1991 est.)
     Exports:
         $35.4 billion (f.o.b., 1991)
       commodities:
         electrical manufactures, crude petroleum, timber, rubber, palm oil, textiles
       partners:
         Singapore, US, Japan, EC
     Imports:
         $38.7 billion (c.i.f., 1991)
       commodities:
         food, crude oil, consumer goods, intermediate goods, capital equipment,
         chemicals
       partners:
         Japan, US, Singapore, Germany, UK
     External debt:
         $21.3 billion (1991 est.)
     Industrial production:
         growth rate 18% (1990); accounts for 40% of GDP
     Electricity:
         5,600,000 kW capacity; 16,500 million kWh produced, 940 kWh per capita
         (1990)
     Industries:
       Peninsular Malaysia:
         rubber and oil palm processing and manufacturing, light manufacturing
         industry, electronics, tin mining and smelting, logging and processing
         timber
       Sabah:
         logging, petroleum production
       Sarawak:
         agriculture processing, petroleum production and refining, logging
     Agriculture:
       Peninsular Malaysia:
         natural rubber, palm oil, rice
       Sabah:
         mainly subsistence, but also rubber, timber, coconut, rice