y investment
procedures. The government has also been cutting public expenditures
by reducing subsidies, privatizing state industries, and laying off
civil servants. (In 1995 little progress was made in these areas
because the communist government had trouble formulating and
implementing policies.) The new coalition government is planning to
pick up the pace of reforms in 1996, focusing primarily on raising
revenues to develop the rural sector by increasing taxation and
privatization. Prospects for foreign trade and investment,
particularly in areas other than power development and tourism, will
continue to remain poor because of the small size of the economy,
its technological backwardness, its remoteness, and its
susceptibility to natural disaster. The international community
provides funding for 62% of Nepal's developmental budget and for 34%
of total budgetary expenditures.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $25.2 billion (1995 est.)

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

GDP per capita: $1,200 (1995 est.)

GDP composition by sector:
agriculture: 49.3%
industry: 18.4%
services: 32.3% (1993)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 6.7% (FY94/95)

Labor force: 8.5 million (1991 est.)
by occupation: agriculture 93%, services 5%, industry 2%
note: severe lack of skilled labor

Unemployment rate: NA%; substantial underemployment (1995)

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
production: 920 million kWh
consumption per capita: 41 kWh (1993)

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

Illicit drugs: illicit producer of cannabis for the domestic and
international drug markets; transit point for heroin from Southeast
Asia to the West

Exports: $430 million (f.o.b., 1995 est.) but does not include
unrecorded border trade with India
commodities: carpets, clothing, leather goods, jute goods, grain
partners: India, US, Germany, UK

Imports: $1.4 billion (c.i.f., 1995 est.)
commodities: petroleum products 20%, fertilizer 11%, machinery 10%
partners: India, Singapore, Japan, Germany

External debt: $2.3 billion (FY94/95 e