2-3% since the mid-1970s. The
economy had been organized along socialist lines, dominated by the public
sector. Economic growth has been constrained by a lack of incentives, partly
stemming from centralized control over production decisions, investment
allocation, and import choices.
GDP:
exchange rate conversion - $5.3 billion, per capita $545; real growth rate
NA% (1990 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
North:
16.9% (1988)
South:
0% (1989)
Unemployment rate:
North:
13% (1986)
South:
NA%
Budget:
North:
revenues $1.4 billion; expenditures $2.2 billion, including capital
expenditures of $590 million (1988 est.)
South:
revenues and grants $435 million; expenditures $1.0 billion, including
capital expenditure of $460 million (1988 est.)
Exports:
North:
$606 million (f.o.b., 1989)
commodities:
crude oil, cotton, coffee, hides, vegetables
partners:
FRG 29%, US 26%, Netherlands 12%
South:
$113.8 million (f.o.b., 1989 est.)
commodities:
cotton, hides, skins, dried and salted fish

:Yemen Economy

partners:
Japan, North Yemen, Italy
Imports:
North:
$1.3 billion (f.o.b., 1988)
Imports:
commodities:
textiles and other manufactured consumer goods, petroleum products, sugar,
grain, flour, other foodstuffs, and cement
partners:
Saudi Arabia 12%, France 6%, US 5%, Australia 5% (1985)
South:
$553.9 million (f.o.b., 1989 est.)
commodities:
grain, consumer goods, crude oil, machinery, chemicals
partners:
USSR, UK, Ethiopia
External debt:
$5.75 billion (December 1989 est.)
Industrial production:
North:
growth rate 2% in manufacturing (1988)
South:
growth rate NA% in manufacturing
Electricity:
700,000 kW capacity; 1,200 million kWh produced, 120 kWh per capita (1991)
Industries:
crude oil production and petroleum refining; small-scale production of
cotton textiles and leather goods; food processing; handicrafts; fishing;
small aluminum products factory; cement
Agriculture:
North:
accounted for 26% of GDP and 70% of labor force; farm products - grain,
fruits, vegetables, qat (mildly narcotic shrub), coffee, cotton, dairy,
poultry, meat, goat meat; not self-sufficient in grain
South:
accounted for 17% of GNP and 45% of labor force; products - grain, qat
(mildly narcotic shrub), coffee, fish, livestoc