re occupies
approximately 70% of the population. The manufacturing sector has
diversified since the mid-1980s. Sugar and wood pulp remain
important foreign exchange earners. In 2007, the sugar industry
increased efficiency and diversification efforts, in response to a
17% decline in EU sugar prices. Mining has declined in importance in
recent years with only coal and quarry stone mines remaining active.
Surrounded by South Africa, except for a short border with
Mozambique, Swaziland is heavily dependent on South Africa from
which it receives more than nine-tenths of its imports and to which
it sends 60% of its exports. Swaziland's currency is pegged to the
South African rand, subsuming Swaziland's monetary policy to South
Africa. Customs duties from the Southern African Customs Union,
which may equal as much as 70% of government revenue this year, and
worker remittances from South Africa substantially supplement
domestically earned income. Swaziland is not poor enough to merit an
IMF program; however, the country is struggling to reduce the size
of the civil service and control costs at public enterprises. The
government is trying to improve the atmosphere for foreign
investment. With an estimated 40% unemployment rate, Swaziland's
need to increase the number and size of small and medium enterprises
and attract foreign direct investment is acute. Overgrazing, soil
depletion, drought, and sometimes floods persist as problems for the
future. More than one-fourth of the population needed emergency food
aid in 2006-07 because of drought, and nearly two-fifths of the
adult population has been infected by HIV/AIDS.

GDP (purchasing power parity):

$5.364 billion (2007 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):

$2.936 billion (2007 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:

2.3% (2007 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):

$4,700 (2007 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:

agriculture: 11.8%
industry: 45.7%
services: 42.5% (2007 est.)

Labor force:

300,000 (2006)

Labor force - by occupation:

agriculture: NA%
industry: NA%
services: NA%

Unemployment rate:

40% (2006 est.)

Population below poverty line:

69% (2006)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:

lowest 10%: 1.6%
highest 10%: 40.7% (2001)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:

50.4 (2001)

Investment (gross fixed):

18.6% of GDP (2007 est.)

Budget:

revenues: $1.13 billion
expenditures: $1.143 bi