rial production growth rate: 13% (1996 est.)

Electricity - capacity: 210 million kW (1995)

Electricity - production: 859 billion kWh (1994)

Electricity - consumption per capita: 684 kWh (1995 est.)

Agriculture - products: rice, wheat, potatoes, sorghum, peanuts, tea,
millet, barley, cotton, other fibers, oilseed; pork and other
livestock products; fish

Exports:
total value : $151.07 billion (f.o.b., 1996)
commodities: clothing, miscellaneous consumer goods, fabrics,
footwear, toys, electrical machinery and switchgear (1995)
partners: Hong Kong, Japan, US, South Korea, Germany, Singapore (1995)

Imports:
total value : $138.83 billion (c.i.f., 1996)
commodities: plastics, fabrics, telecommunications equipment,
electrical machinery and switchgear, transistors, other industrial
machinery (1995)
partners: Japan, US, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Germany, Russia
(1995)

Debt - external: $92 billion (1994 est.)

Economic aid:
recipient: ODA, $1.977 billion (1993)

Currency: 1 yuan (Y) = 10 jiao

Exchange rates: yuan (Y) per US$1 - 8.2963 (January 1997), 8.3142
(1996), 8.3514 (1995), 8.6187 (1994), 5.7620 (1993), 5.5146 (1992)
note: beginning 1 January 1994, the People's Bank of China quotes the
midpoint rate against the US dollar based on the previous day's
prevailing rate in the interbank foreign exchange market

Fiscal year: calendar year

@China:Communications

Telephones: 20 million (1994 est.)

Telephone system: domestic and international services are increasingly
available for private use; unevenly distributed domestic system serves
principal cities, industrial centers, and most townships
domestic: telephone lines are being expanded to 100 million by 1996;
interprovincial fiber-optic trunk lines and cellular telephone systems
have been installed; a domestic satellite system with 55 earth
stations is in place
international: satellite earth stations - 5 Intelsat (4 Pacific Ocean
and 1 Indian Ocean), 1 Intersputnik (Indian Ocean Region) and 1
Inmarsat (Pacific and Indian Ocean Regions); several international
fiber-optic links to Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong

Radio broadcast stations: AM 274, FM NA, shortwave 0

Radios: 216.5 million (1992 est.)

Television broadcast stations: 202 (repeaters 2,050)

Televisions: 75 million

@China:Transportation

Railways:
total : 62,500 km (including 5,400 km of provincial "local" rails)
standard gauge: 58,900 km 1.435-m gauge (9,700 km electrifie