to GDP, employs 80% of the labor
force, and provides most of the exports. The country is not
self-sufficient in food production; rice, the main staple, accounts
for the bulk of imports. The government is struggling to upgrade
education and technical training, to privatize commercial and
industrial enterprises, to improve health services, to diversify
exports, to promote tourism, and to reduce the high population growth
rate. Continued foreign support is essential if the goal of 4% annual
GDP growth is to be reached in the late 1990s.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $370 million (1995 est.)

GDP - real growth rate: -2.3% (1995 est.)

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $650 (1995 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 39%
industry: 13%
services : 48% (1995 est.)

Inflation rate - consumer price index: 7.1% (1995 est.)

Labor force:
total : 140,000 (1982)
by occupation: agriculture 80%, government 3%

Unemployment rate: NA%

Budget:
revenues : $83 million
expenditures: $92 million, including capital expenditures of $32
million (1992)

Industries: tourism, perfume distillation, textiles, furniture,
jewelry, construction materials, soft drinks

Industrial production growth rate: -6.5% (1989 est.)

Electricity - capacity: 16,000 kW (1991)

Electricity - production: 25 million kWh (1991)

Electricity - consumption per capita: 52 kWh (1991 est.)

Agriculture - products: vanilla, cloves, perfume essences, copra,
coconuts, bananas, cassava (tapioca)

Exports:
total value: $11.2 million (f.o.b., 1995 est.)
commodities: vanilla, ylang-ylang, cloves, perfume oil, copra
partners: France 54%, Germany 18%, US 18%

Imports:
total value: $40.9 million (f.o.b., 1993 est.)
commodities: rice and other foodstuffs, consumer goods; petroleum
products, cement, transport equipment
partners: France 60%, South Africa 10%, Kenya 5%, Singapore 4%

Debt - external: $189 million (1995 est.)

Economic aid:
recipient: ODA, $NA

Currency: 1 Comoran franc (CF) = 100 centimes

Exchange rates: Comoran francs (CF) per US$1 - 406.27 (January 1997),
383.66 (1996), 374.36 (1995), 416.40 (1994), 283.16 (1993), 264.69
(1992)
note: beginning 12 January 1994, the Comoran franc was devalued to 75
per French franc from 50 per French franc at which it had been fixed
since 1948

Fiscal year: calendar year

@Comoros:Communications

Telephones: 3,770 (1991 est.)

Telephone system: sparse system of microwave ra