oducts

Industrial production growth rate: 2% (1996 est.)

Electricity - capacity: 2.018 million kW (1993)

Electricity - production: 4.27 billion kWh (1994)

Electricity - consumption per capita: 2,197 kWh (1995 est.)

Agriculture - products: grain, sugar beets, potatoes, vegetables;
meat, milk, eggs; fish

Exports:
total value: $1.6 billion (f.o.b., 1996)
commodities: machinery and equipment, timber, textiles, foodstuffs
partners : Russia, other CIS, Germany, Sweden, UK

Imports:
total value: $2.4 billion (c.i.f., 1996)
commodities : fuels, machinery and equipment, chemicals
partners: Russia, other CIS, Germany, Sweden, UK, Finland

Debt - external: $NA

Economic aid:
recipient: ODA, $122 million (1993)
note: commitments from the West and international institutions, $525
million (1992-95)

Currency: 1 Latvian lat (LVL) = 100 santims; introduced NA March 1993

Exchange rates: lats (LVL) per US$1 - 0.563 (January 1997), 0.551
(1996), 0.528 (1995), 0.560 (1994), 0.675 (1993), 0.736 (1992)

Fiscal year: calendar year

@Latvia:Communications

Telephones: 660,000 (1993 est.)

Telephone system: service is better than in most of the other former
Soviet republics
domestic: an NMT-450 analog cellular telephone network covers 75% of
Latvia's population
international: international traffic carried by leased connection to
the Moscow international gateway switch, through the new Ericsson
digital telephone exchange in Riga, and through the Finnish cellular
net; Sprint data network carries electronic mail

Radio broadcast stations: 25 (unknown type)

Radios: 1.4 million (1993 est.)

Television broadcast stations: 30

Televisions: 1.1 million (1993 est.)

@Latvia:Transportation

Railways:
total: 2,412 km
broad gauge: 2,379 km 1.520-m gauge (271 km electrified) (1992)
narrow gauge: 33 km 0.750-m gauge (1994)

Highways:
total: 60,046 km
paved: 22,998 km
unpaved: 37,048 km (1995 est.)

Waterways: 300 km perennially navigable

Pipelines: crude oil 750 km; refined products 780 km; natural gas 560
km (1992)

Ports and harbors: Daugavpils, Liepaja, Riga, Ventspils

Merchant marine:
total: 51 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 491,582 GRT/639,414 DWT
ships by type: cargo 7, oil tanker 19, refrigerated cargo 18,
roll-on/roll-off cargo 7 (1996 est.)

Airports: 50 (1994 est.)

Airports - with paved runways:
total: 36
2,438 to 3,047 m: 6
1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
914 to 1,523 m: 1
under 914 m: 27 (199