4% (1995)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 2.8% (2000 est.)

Labor force: 70,000 receive regular wages or salaries

Labor force - by occupation: agriculture 90%, industry and commerce
6%, government 4%

Unemployment rate: NA%

Budget: revenues: $377 million, including $146 million from foreign
sources

expenditures: $377 million, including capital expenditures of $105
million (1999 est.)

Industries: uranium mining, cement, brick, textiles, food
processing, chemicals, slaughterhouses

Industrial production growth rate: NA%

Electricity - production: 200 million kWh (1999)

Electricity - production by source: fossil fuel: 100%

hydro: 0%

nuclear: 0%

other: 0% (1999)

Electricity - consumption: 401 million kWh (1999)

Electricity - exports: 0 kWh (1999)

Electricity - imports: 215 million kWh (1999)

Agriculture - products: cowpeas, cotton, peanuts, millet, sorghum,
cassava (tapioca), rice; cattle, sheep, goats, camels, donkeys,
horses, poultry

Exports: $385 million (f.o.b., 1999)

Exports - commodities: uranium ore 65%, livestock products, cowpeas,
onions (1998 est.)

Exports - partners: France 45%, Nigeria 27%, UK 11% (1999)

Imports: $317 million (f.o.b., 1999)

Imports - commodities: consumer goods, primary materials, machinery,
vehicles and parts, petroleum, cereals

Imports - partners: France 22%, Cote d'Ivoire 15%, Nigeria 8%, US 3%
(1999)

Debt - external: $1.3 billion (1999 est.)

Economic aid - recipient: $341 million (1997)

note: the IMF approved a $73 million poverty reduction and growth
facility for Niger in 2000 and announced $115 million in debt relief
under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative

Currency: Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XOF); note -
responsible authority is the Central Bank of the West African States

Currency code: XOF

Exchange rates: Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XOF) per US
dollar - 699.21 (January 2001), 711.98 (2000), 615.70 (1999), 589.95
(1998), 583.67 (1997), 511.55 (1996); note - from 1 January 1999,
the XOF is pegged to the euro at a rate of 655.957 XOF per euro

Fiscal year: calendar year

Niger Communications

Telephones - main lines in use: 16,000 (1997)

Telephones - mobile cellular: 13,000 (1995)

Telephone system: general assessment: small system of wire, radio
telephone communications, and microwave radio relay links
concentrated in the southwestern area of Niger

domes