ment rate: 2.3% (2000 est.)

Budget: revenues: $57.7 million

expenditures: $80.8 million, including capital expenditures of
$17.1 million (FY98/99 est.)

Industries: tourism, craft items (from shell, wood, pearls),
construction, garment making

Industrial production growth rate: NA%

Agriculture - products: coconuts, copra, cassava (tapioca), sweet
potatoes

Exports: $14.3 million (f.o.b., 1996)

Exports - commodities: trochus (type of shellfish), tuna, copra,
handicrafts

Exports - partners: US, Japan

Imports: $126 million (f.o.b., FY99/00)

Imports - commodities: machinery and equipment, fuels, metals;
foodstuffs

Imports - partners: US

Debt - external: $0 (FY99/00)

Economic aid - recipient: $155.8 million (1995); note - the Compact
of Free Association with the US, entered into after the end of the
UN trusteeship on 1 October 1994, will provide Palau with up to $700
million in US aid over 15 years in return for furnishing military
facilities

Currency: US dollar (USD)

Currency code: USD

Exchange rates: the US dollar is used

Fiscal year: 1 October - 30 September

Palau Communications

Telephones - main lines in use: 1,500 (1988)

Telephones - mobile cellular: 0 (1988)

Telephone system: general assessment: NA

domestic: NA

international: satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Pacific Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations: AM 1, FM 0, shortwave 1 (1998)

Radios: 12,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations: 1 (1997)

Televisions: 11,000 (1997)

Internet country code: .pw

Internet Service Providers (ISPs): NA

Palau Transportation

Railways: 0 km

Highways: total: 61 km

paved: 36 km

unpaved: 25 km

Waterways: none

Ports and harbors: Koror

Merchant marine: none (2000 est.)

Airports: 3 (2000 est.)

Airports - with paved runways: total: 1

1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2000 est.)

Airports - with unpaved runways: total: 2

1,524 to 2,437 m: 2 (2000 est.)

Palau Military

Military branches: NA

Military expenditures - dollar figure: $NA

Military expenditures - percent of GDP: NA%

Military - note: defense is the responsibility of the US; under a
Compact of Free Association between Palau and the US, the US
military is granted access to the islands for 50 years

Palau Transnational Issues

Disputes - international: none

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@Palmyra Atoll