nomy, encouragement of tourism, and more efficient use of scarce
water resources.

Zambia
Despite progress in privatization and budgetary reform,
Zambia's economic growth remains somewhat below the 5% to 7% needed
to reduce poverty significantly. Privatization of government-owned
copper mines relieved the government from covering mammoth losses
generated by the industry and greatly improved the chances for
copper mining to return to profitability and spur economic growth.
Copper output increased in 2004 and is expected to increase again in
2005, due to higher copper prices and the opening of new mines. The
maize harvest was again good in 2004, helping boost GDP and
agricultural exports. Cooperation continues with international
bodies on programs to reduce poverty, including a new lending
arrangement with the IMF in the second quarter, 2004. A tighter
monetary policy will help cut inflation, but Zambia still has a
serious problem with fiscal discipline.

Zimbabwe
The government of Zimbabwe faces a wide variety of
difficult economic problems as it struggles with an unsustainable
fiscal deficit, an overvalued exchange rate, soaring inflation, and
bare shelves. Its 1998-2002 involvement in the war in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, for example, drained hundreds of millions of
dollars from the economy. Badly needed support from the IMF has been
suspended because of the country's failure to meet budgetary goals.
Inflation rose from an annual rate of 32% in 1998 to 133% at the end
of 2004, while the exchange rate fell from 24 Zimbabwean dollars per
US dollar to 6,200 in the same time period. The government's land
reform program, characterized by chaos and violence, has badly
damaged the commercial farming sector, the traditional source of
exports and foreign exchange and the provider of 400,000 jobs.

This page was last updated on 20 October, 2005

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@2117 Pipelines (km)

Afghanistan
gas 387 km (2004)

Albania
gas 339 km; oil 207 km (2004)

Algeria
condensate 1,344 km; gas 85,946 km; liquid petroleum gas
2,213 km; oil 6,496 km (2004)

Angola
gas 214 km; liquid natural gas 14 km; liquid petroleum gas 30
km; oil 837 km; refined products 56 km (2004)

Argentina
gas 27,166 km; liquid petroleum gas 41 km; oil 3,668 km;
refined products 2,945 km; unknown (