telephone (212) 687-9766;
US--Ambassador James MORAN; Embassy at 4th Floor, Victoria House, Victoria
(mailing address is Box 148, Victoria, or APO New York 09030);
telephone 23921 or 23922

Flag: three horizontal bands of red (top), white (wavy), and green;
the white band is the thinnest, the red band is the thickest

- Economy
Overview: In this small, open tropical island economy, the tourist
industry employs about 30% of the labor force and provides the main
source of hard currency earnings. In recent years the government has
encouraged foreign investment in order to upgrade hotels and other
services. At the same time, the government has moved to reduce the high
dependence on tourism by promoting the development of farming, fishing,
and small-scale manufacturing.

GDP: $255 million, per capita $3,720; real growth rate 6.2%;
(1988 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 2.3% (1988)

Unemployment rate: 15% (1986)

Budget: revenues $106 million; expenditures $130 million, including
capital expenditures of $21 million (1987)

Exports: $17 million (f.o.b., 1988 est.);
commodities--fish, copra, cinnamon bark, petroleum products
(reexports);
partners--France 63%, Pakistan 12%, Reunion 10%, UK 7% (1987)

Imports: $116 million (f.o.b., 1988 est.);
commodities--manufactured goods, food, tobacco, beverages,
machinery and transportation equipment, petroleum products;
partners--UK 20%, France 14%, South Africa 13%, PDRY 13%,
Singapore 8%, Japan 6% (1987)

External debt: $178 million (December 1988)

Industrial production: growth rate 7% (1987)

Electricity: 25,000 kW capacity; 67 million kWh produced,
960 kWh per capita (1989)

Industries: tourism, processing of coconut and vanilla, fishing,
coir rope factory, boat building, printing, furniture, beverage

Agriculture: accounts for 7% of GDP, mostly subsistence farming;
cash crops--coconuts, cinnamon, vanilla; other products--sweet potatoes,
cassava, bananas; broiler chickens; large share of food needs imported;
expansion of tuna fishing under way

Aid: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY78-88), $23 million; Western
(non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1978-87), $297 million;
OPEC bilateral aid (1979-89), $5 million; Communist countries (1970-88),
$56 million

Currency: Seychelles rupee (plural--rupees);
1 Seychelles rupee (SRe) = 100 cents

Exchange rates: Seychelles rupees (SR) per US$1--5.4884 (January 1990),
5.6457 (1989), 5.3836 (19