nd endemic corruption. A major banking crisis in 2003 shuttered the
country's 20 private banks and disrupted the economy. As of 2007,
the largest private banks operated under tight restrictions limiting
the private sector's access to formal credit. Moreover, the
September 2007 crackdown on prodemocracy demonstrators, including
thousands of monks, further strained the economy as the tourism
industry, which directly employs about 500,000 people, suffered
dramatic declines in foreign visitor levels. In November 2007, the
European Union announced new sanctions banning investment and trade
in Burmese gems, timber and precious stones, while the United States
expanded its sanctions list to include more Burmese government and
military officials and their family members, as well as prominent
regime business cronies, their family members, and associated
companies. Official statistics are inaccurate. Published statistics
on foreign trade are greatly understated because of the size of the
black market and unofficial border trade - often estimated to be as
large as the official economy. Though the Burmese government has
good economic relations with its neighbors, better investment and
business climates and an improved political situation are needed to
promote serious foreign investment, exports, and tourism.

Burundi
Burundi is a landlocked, resource-poor country with an
underdeveloped manufacturing sector. The economy is predominantly
agricultural with more than 90% of the population dependent on
subsistence agriculture. Economic growth depends on coffee and tea
exports, which account for 90% of foreign exchange earnings. The
ability to pay for imports, therefore, rests primarily on weather
conditions and international coffee and tea prices. The Tutsi
minority, 14% of the population, dominates the government and the
coffee trade at the expense of the Hutu majority, 85% of the
population. An ethnic-based war that lasted for over a decade
resulted in more than 200,000 deaths, forced more than 48,000
refugees into Tanzania, and displaced 140,000 others internally.
Only one in two children go to school, and approximately one in 15
adults has HIV/AIDS. Food, medicine, and electricity remain in short
supply. Burundi's GDP grew around 5% annually in 2006-07. Political
stability and the end of the civil war have improved aid flows and
economic activity has increased,