n: agriculture and forestry 53%, industry and commerce
26%, construction and mining 7%, social services 4%, other 10% (1995)

Unemployment rate: officially 4% in urban areas; probably 8%-10%;
substantial unemployment and underemployment in rural areas (1997
est.)

Budget:
revenues: $NA
expenditures: $NA, including capital expenditures of $NA

Industries: iron and steel, coal, machine building, armaments,
textiles and apparel, petroleum, cement, chemical fertilizers,
footwear, toys, food processing, autos, consumer electronics,
telecommunications

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

Electricity-capacity: 250 million kW (1997 est.)

Electricity-production: 1.135 trillion kWh (1997 est.)

Electricity-consumption per capita: 1,100 kWh (1997 est.)

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

Exports:
total value: $182.7 billion (f.o.b., 1997)
commodities: electrical machinery, clothing, footwear, toys, mineral
fuels, leather, plastics, fabrics (1997)
partners: Hong Kong, US, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Netherlands
(1997)

Imports:
total value: $142.4 billion (c.i.f., 1997)
commodities: mechanical appliances, electrical machinery, mineral
fuels, plastics, iron and steel, fabrics, cotton and yarn (1997)
partners: Japan, Taiwan, US, South Korea, Hong Kong, Germany,
Singapore (1997)

Debt-external: $131 billion (1997 est.)

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

Currency: 1 yuan (Y) = 10 jiao

Exchange rates: yuan (Y) per US$1-8.2796 (December 1997), 8.2898
(1997), 8.3142 (1996), 8.3514 (1995), 8.6187 (1994), 5.7620 (1993)
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

Communications

Telephones: 89 million (1997 est.); note-there are 2.5 telephones per
100 urban population and 7.2 telephones per 100 total population

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: interprovincial fiber-optic trunk lines and cellular
telephone systems have been installed; a domestic satellite system
with 55 earth stations is in place
international