Part 711

Economic overview: This small landlocked economy is based largely on subsistence agriculture, which occupies more than 60% of the population. Manufacturing features a number of agroprocessing factories. Mining has declined in importance in recent years; high-grade iron ore deposits were depleted by 1978, and health concerns cut world demand for asbestos. Exports of sugar and forestry products are the main earners of hard currency. Surrounded by South Africa, except for a short border with Mozambique, Swaziland is heavily dependent on South Africa, from which it receives 90% of its imports and to which it sends about half of its exports. Remittances from Swazi workers in South African mines supplement domestically produced income by as much as 20%. Overgrazing, soil depletion, and drougth persist as problems for the future.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $3.6 billion (1995 est.)

GDP real growth rate: 2.6% (1995 est.)

GDP per capita: $3,700 (1995 est.)

GDP composition by sector: agriculture: 25% industry: 40% services: 35% (1995 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 14.7% (1995 est.)

Labor force: 160,355 (1986 est.) by occupation: private sector about 65%, public sector 35%

Unemployment rate: 15% (1992 est.)

Budget: revenues: $342 million expenditures: $410 million, including capital expenditures of $130 million (1994 est.)

Industries: mining (coal and asbestos), wood pulp, sugar

Industrial production growth rate: 4.2% (1993 est.)

Electricity: capacity: 120,000 kW production: 410 million kWh consumption per capita: 1,003 kWh (1993)

Agriculture: sugarcane, cotton, maize, tobacco, rice, citrus, pineapples, corn, sorghum, peanuts; cattle, goats, sheep

Exports: $798 million (f.o.b., 1994 est.) commodities: sugar, edible concentrates, wood pulp, cotton yarn, asbestos partners: South Africa 50%, EU countries, Canada

Imports: $827 million (f.o.b., 1994 est.) commodities: motor vehicles, machinery, transport equipment, petroleum products, foodstuffs, chemicals partners: South Africa 90%, Switzerland, UK 2.6%

External debt: $240 million (1992)

Economic aid: recipient: ODA, $NA

Currency: 1 lilangeni (E) = 100 cents

Exchange rates: emalangeni (E) per US$1 - 3.6417 (January 1996), 3.6266 (1995), 3.5490 (1994), 3.2636 (1993), 2.8497 (1992), 2.7563 (1991), 2.5863 (1990); note - the Swazi emalangeni is at par with the South African rand

Fiscal year: 1 April - 31 March

Transportation --------------

Railways: total: 297 km; note - includes 71 km which are not in use narrow gauge: 297 km 1.067-m gauge (single track)

Highways: total: 2,960 km paved: 804 km unpaved: 2,156 km (1993 est.)

Ports: none

Airports: total: 17 with paved runways 2 438 to 3 047 m: 1 with paved runways under 914 m: 10 with unpaved runways 914 to 1 523 m: 6 (1995 est.)

Communications --------------

Telephones: 30,364 (1993 est.)

Telephone system: domestic: system consists of carrier-equipped, open-wire lines and low-capacity, microwave radio relay international: satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)