nner
bearing the words HONG KONG below the shield

_*_Economy
_#_Overview: Hong Kong has a free market economy with few tariffs
or nontariff barriers. Natural resources are limited, and food and raw
materials must be imported. Manufacturing accounts for about 18% of
GDP, employs 28% of the labor force, and exports about 90% of its
output. Real GDP growth averaged a remarkable 8% in 1987-88, then
slowed to 2.5-3.0% in 1989-90. Unemployment, which has been declining
since the mid-1980s, is now less than 2%. A shortage of labor continues
to put upward pressure on prices and the cost of living. Short-term
prospects remain solid so long as major trading partners continue to be
prosperous. The crackdown in China in 1989-90 casts a long shadow over
the longer term economic outlook.

_#_GDP: $64.0 billion, per capita $11,000; real growth rate 2.5%
(1990)

_#_Inflation rate (consumer prices): 9.8% (1990)

_#_Unemployment rate: 1.8% (1990)

_#_Budget: $8.8 billion (FY90)

_#_Exports: $80.3 billion (f.o.b., 1990), including reexports of
$51.2 billion;

commodities--clothing, textile yarn and fabric, footwear,
electrical appliances, watches and clocks, toys;

partners--US 32%, China 19%, FRG 7%, UK 6%, Japan 6% (1989)

_#_Imports: $79.5 billion (c.i.f., 1990);

commodities--foodstuffs, transport equipment, raw materials,
semimanufactures, petroleum;

partners--China 35%, Japan 17%, Taiwan 9%, US 8% (1989)

_#_External debt: $9.5 billion (December 1990 est.)

_#_Industrial production: growth rate 1.7% (1989)

_#_Electricity: 8,485,000 kW capacity; 25,000 million kWh produced,
4,340 kWh per capita (1990)

_#_Industries: textiles, clothing, tourism, electronics, plastics,
toys, watches, clocks

_#_Agriculture: minor role in the economy; rice, vegetables, dairy
products; less than 20% self-sufficient; shortages of rice, wheat, water

_#_Illicit drugs: a hub for Southeast Asian heroin trade;
transshipment and major financial and money-laundering center

_#_Economic aid: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-87), $152
million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments
(1970-88), $910 million

_#_Currency: Hong Kong dollar (plural--dollars);
1 Hong Kong dollar (HK$) = 100 cents

_#_Exchange rates: Hong Kong dollars (HK$) per US$--7.800 (March
1989), 7.810 (1988), 7.760 (1987), 7.795 (1986), 7.811 (1985);
note--linked to the US dollar at the rate of about 7.8 H