ique has failed to exploit the
economic potential of its sizable agricultural, hydropower, and
transportation resources. Indeed, national output, consumption, and
investment declined throughout the first half of the 1980s because of
internal disorders, lack of government administrative control, and a growing
foreign debt. A sharp increase in foreign aid, attracted by an economic
reform policy, resulted in successive years of economic growth in the late
1980s, but aid has declined steadily since 1989. Agricultural output,
nevertheless, is at about only 75% of its 1981 level, and grain has to be
imported. Industry operates at only 20-40% of capacity. The economy depends
heavily on foreign assistance to keep afloat. The continuation of civil
strife has dimmed chances of foreign investment, and growth was a mere 0.3%
in 1992. Living standards, already abysmally low, fell further in 1991-92.
National product:
GDP - exchange rate conversion - $1.75 billion (1992 est.)
National product real growth rate:
0.3% (1992 est.)
National product per capita:
$115 (1992 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
50% (1992 est.)
Unemployment rate:
50% (1989 est.)
Budget:
revenues $252 million; expenditures $607 million, including capital
expenditures of $NA (1992 est.)
Exports:
$162 million (f.o.b., 1991 est.)
commodities:
shrimp 48%, cashews 21%, sugar 10%, copra 3%, citrus 3%
partners:
US, Western Europe, Germany, Japan
Imports:
$899 million (c.i.f., 1991 est.)
commodities:
food, clothing, farm equipment, petroleum
partners:
US, Western Europe, USSR
External debt:
$5.4 billion (1991 est.)
Industrial production:
growth rate 5% (1989 est.)
Electricity:
2,270,000 kW capacity; 1,745 million kWh produced, 115 kWh per capita (1991)
Industries:
food, beverages, chemicals (fertilizer, soap, paints), petroleum products,
textiles, nonmetallic mineral products (cement, glass, asbestos), tobacco
Agriculture:
accounts for 50% of GDP and about 90% of exports; cash crops - cotton,
cashew nuts, sugarcane, tea, shrimp; other crops - cassava, corn, rice,
tropical fruits; not self-sufficient in food
Economic aid:
US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $350 million; Western (non-US)
countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-89), $4.4 billion; OPEC
bilateral aid (1979-89), $37 million; Communist countries (1970-89), $890
million
Currency:
1 metical