tructure, a
free-enterprise economy, and welcomes foreign investment. Thailand
has fully recovered from the 1997-98 Asian Financial Crisis and was
one of East Asia's best performers in 2002-04. Increased consumption
and investment spending and strong export growth pushed GDP growth
up to 6.9% in 2003 and 6.1% in 2004 despite a sluggish global
economy. The highly popular government's expansionist policy,
including major support of village economic development, has raised
concerns about fiscal discipline and the health of financial
institutions. Bangkok has pursued preferential trade agreements with
a variety of partners in an effort to boost exports and maintain
high growth, and in 2004 began negotiations on a Free Trade
Agreement with the US. In late December 2004, a major tsunami took
8,500 lives in Thailand and caused massive destruction of property
in the southern provinces of Krabi, Phangnga, and Phuket.

Togo
This small sub-Saharan economy is heavily dependent on both
commercial and subsistence agriculture, which provides employment
for 65% of the labor force. Some basic foodstuffs must still be
imported. Cocoa, coffee, and cotton generate about 40% of export
earnings, with cotton being the most important cash crop. Togo is
the world's fourth-largest producer of phosphate, but production
fell an estimated 22% in 2002 due to power shortages and the cost of
developing new deposits. The government's decade-long effort,
supported by the World Bank and the IMF, to implement economic
reform measures, encourage foreign investment, and bring revenues in
line with expenditures has moved slowly. Progress depends on
following through on privatization, increased openness in government
financial operations, progress toward legislative elections, and
continued support from foreign donors.

Tokelau
Tokelau's small size (three villages), isolation, and lack
of resources greatly restrain economic development and confine
agriculture to the subsistence level. The people rely heavily on aid
from New Zealand - about $4 million annually - to maintain public
services, with annual aid being substantially greater than GDP. The
principal sources of revenue come from sales of copra, postage
stamps, souvenir coins, and handicrafts. Money is also remitted to
families from relatives in New Zealand.

Tonga
Tonga, a small, open, South Pacific island economy, has a