landlocked geographic location highly susceptible to natural disaster.
The international community provides funding for more than 60% of
Nepal's development budget and more than 30% of total budgetary
expenditures.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $26.5 billion (1996 est.)

GDP - real growth rate: 2.9% (FY95/96 est.)

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $1,200 (1996 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 42%
industry: 22%
services: 36% (1996 est.)

Inflation rate - consumer price index: 9.2% (1996 est.)

Labor force:
total: 9.2 million (1996 est.)
by occupation: agriculture 90%, services 7%, industry 3%
note : severe lack of skilled labor

Unemployment rate: NA%; substantial underemployment (1996)

Budget:
revenues: $645 million
expenditures: $1.05 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA
(FY94/95 est.)

Industries: tourism, carpet, textile; small rice, jute, sugar, and
oilseed mills; cigarette; cement and brick production

Industrial production growth rate: 14.7% (FY94/95 est.)

Electricity - capacity: 280,000 kW 000 kW

Electricity - production: 980 million kWh

Electricity - consumption per capita: 48 kWh (1996 est.)

Agriculture - products: rice, corn, wheat, sugarcane, root crops;
milk, water buffalo meat

Exports:
total value: $343 million (f.o.b., 1996 est.) but does not include
unrecorded border trade with India
commodities: carpets, clothing, leather goods, jute goods, grain
partners : India, US, Germany, UK

Imports:
total value: $1.3 billion (c.i.f., 1996 est.)
commodities: petroleum products 20%, fertilizer 11%, machinery 10%
partners: India, Singapore, Japan, Germany

Debt - external: $2.85 billion (1996 est.)

Economic aid:
recipient: ODA, $310 million (1993)
note: total bilateral and multilateral aid of $217 million in 1996

Currency: 1 Nepalese rupee (NR) = 100 paisa

Exchange rates: Nepalese rupees (NRs) per US$1 - 57.030 (January
1997), 56.692 (1996), 51.890 (1995), 49.398 (1994), 48.607 (1993),
42.718 (1992)

Fiscal year: 16 July - 15 July

@Nepal:Communications

Telephones: 115,911 (1996 est.)

Telephone system: poor telephone and telegraph service; fair
radiotelephone communication service
domestic: NA
international: radiotelephone communications; satellite earth station
- 1 Intelsat (Indian Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations: AM 88, FM 1, shortwave 0

Radios: 690,000 (1992 est.)

Television broadcast stations: 9 (1996 est.)

Tel