f sugarcane and related activities. In recent years, however, the economy
has diversified into manufacturing and tourism. The tourist industry
is now a major employer of the labor force and a primary source of
foreign exchange. A high unemployment rate of about 19% in 1988 remains
one of the most serious economic problems facing the country.

GDP: $1.3 billion, per capita $5,250 (1988 est.); real growth rate
3.7% (1989 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 4.7% (1988)

Unemployment: 18.6% (1988)

Budget: revenues $476 million; expenditures $543 million,
including capital expenditures of $94 million (FY86)

Exports: $173 million (f.o.b., 1988);
commodities--sugar and molasses, electrical components, clothing, rum,
machinery and transport equipment;
partners: US 30%, CARICOM, UK, Puerto Rico, Canada

Imports: $582 million (c.i.f., 1988);
commodities--foodstuffs, consumer durables, raw materials, crude oil;
partners--US 34%, CARICOM, Japan, UK, Canada

External debt: $635 million (December 1989 est.)

Industrial production: growth rate - 5.4% (1987 est.)

Electricity: 132,000 kW capacity; 460 million kWh produced, 1,780
kWh per capita (1989)

Industries: tourism, sugar, light manufacturing, component assembly
for export

Agriculture: accounts for 10% of GDP; major cash crop is sugarcane;
other crops--vegetables and cotton; not self-sufficient in food

Aid: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-84), $14 million; Western
(non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-87), $144 million

Currency: Barbadian dollars (plural--dollars); 1 Barbadian dollar
(Bds$) = 100 cents

Exchange rates: Barbadian dollars (Bds$) per US$1--2.0113 (fixed rate)

Fiscal year: 1 April-31 March

- Communications
Highways: 1,570 km total; 1,475 km paved, 95 km gravel and earth

Ports: Bridgetown

Merchant marine: 2 cargo ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 3,200
GRT/7,338 DWT

Civil air: 2 major transport aircraft

Airports: 1 with permanent-surface runways 2,440-3,659 m

Telecommunications: islandwide automatic telephone system with 89,000
telephones; tropospheric scatter link to Trinidad and St. Lucia; stations--3 AM,
2 FM, 2 (1 is pay) TV; 1 Atlantic Ocean INTELSAT earth station

- Defense Forces
Branches: Royal Barbados Defense Force, Royal Barbados Police Force,
Coast Guard

Military manpower: males 15-49, 67,677; 47,566 fit for military service,
no conscription

Defense expenditures: 0.6% of GDP