e width), and red
with a large white disk centered in the blue band

- Economy
Overview: One of the world's poorest nations, Laos has had a Communist
centrally planned economy with government ownership and control of
productive enterprises of any size. Recently, however, the government
has been decentralizing control and encouraging private enterprise.
Laos is a landlocked country with a primitive infrastructure, that is,
it has no railroads, a rudimentary road system, limited
external and internal telecommunications, and electricity
available in only a limited area. Subsistence agriculture is the
main occupation, accounting for over 60% of GDP and providing about 85-90% of
total employment. The predominant crop is rice. For the foreseeable future the
economy will continue to depend for its survival on foreign aid--from
CEMA, IMF, and other international sources.

GDP: $585 million, per capita $150; real growth rate 3% (1989 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 35% (1989 est.)

Unemployment rate: 15% (1989 est.)

Budget: revenues $71 million; expenditures $198 million, including
capital expenditures of $132 million (1988 est.)

Exports: $57.5 million (f.o.b., 1989 est.); commodities--
electricity, wood products, coffee, tin; partners--Thailand, Malaysia,
Vietnam, USSR, US

Imports: $219 million (c.i.f., 1989 est.); commodities--food, fuel
oil, consumer goods, manufactures; partners--Thailand, USSR, Japan,
France, Vietnam

External debt: $964 million (1989 est.)

Industrial production: growth rate 8% (1989 est.)

Electricity: 176,000 kW capacity; 900 million kWh produced,
225 kWh per capita (1989)

Industries: tin mining, timber, electric power, agricultural
processing

Agriculture: accounts for 60% of GDP and employs most of the work force;
subsistence farming predominates; normally self-sufficient; principal
crops--rice (80% of cultivated land), potatoes, vegetables, coffee,
sugarcane, cotton

Illicit drugs: illicit producer of cannabis and opium poppy for the
international drug trade; production of cannabis increased in 1989;
marijuana and heroin are shipped to Western countries, including the US

Aid: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-79), $276 million; Western
(non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-87), $468
million; Communist countries (1970-88), $895 million

Currency: new kip (plural--kips); 1 new kip (NK) = 100 at

Exchange rates: new kips (NK) per US$1--700 (De