rm of the banking sector is
proceeding slowly, raising concerns that the country will be unable to
tap sufficient domestic savings to maintain current high levels of
growth. Administrative and legal barriers are also causing costly
delays for foreign investors and are raising similar doubts about
Vietnam's ability to maintain the inflow of foreign capital.
Ideological bias in favor of state intervention and control of the
economy is slowing progress toward a more liberalized investment
environment.

GDP: purchasing power parity-$128 billion (1997 est.)

GDP-real growth rate: 8.5% (1997 est.)

GDP-per capita: purchasing power parity-$1,700 (1997 est.)

GDP-composition by sector:
agriculture: 28%
industry: 30%
services: 42% (1996 est.)

Inflation rate-consumer price index: 5% (1997)

Labor force:
total: 32.7 million
by occupation: agriculture 65%, industry and services 35% (1990 est.)

Unemployment rate: 25% (1995 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $5.6 billion
expenditures: $6 billion, including capital expenditures of $1.7
billion (1996 est.)

Industries: food processing, garments, shoes, machine building,
mining, cement, chemical fertilizer, glass, tires, oil

Industrial production growth rate: 12% (1997 est.)

Electricity-capacity: 5.32 million kW (1995)

Electricity-production: 12.3 billion kWh (1995)

Electricity-consumption per capita: 165 kWh (1995)

Agriculture-products: paddy rice, corn, potatoes, rubber, soybeans,
coffee, tea, bananas; poultry, pigs; fish

Exports:
total value: $7.1 billion (f.o.b., 1996 est.)
commodities: crude oil, marine products, rice, coffee, rubber, tea,
garments, shoes
partners: Japan, Germany, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, France, South
Korea

Imports:
total value: $11.1 billion (f.o.b., 1996 est.)
commodities: machinery and equipment, petroleum products, fertilizer,
steel products, raw cotton, grain, cement, motorcycles
partners: Singapore, South Korea, Japan, France, Hong Kong, Taiwan

Debt-external: $7.3 billion Western countries; $4.5 billion CEMA debts
primarily to Russia; $9 billion to $18 billion nonconvertible debt
(former CEMA, Iraq, Iran)

Economic aid:
recipient: ODA, $NA
note: $2.4 billion in credits and grants pledged by international
donors for 1997

Currency: 1 new dong (D) = 100 xu

Exchange rates: new dong (D) per US$1-12,300 (January 1998), 11,100
(December 1996), 11,193 (1995 average), 11,000 (October 1994), 10,800
(November 1993), 8,100 (Ju