precipitated by steep declines in the prices of major exports: coffee,
cocoa, and petroleum. Export earnings were cut by almost one-third, and
inefficiencies in fiscal management were exposed. In 1990-92, with support
from the IMF and World Bank, the government has begun to introduce reforms
designed to spur business investment, increase efficiency in agriculture,
and recapitalize the nation's banks. Nationwide strikes organized by
opposition parties in 1991, however, undermined these efforts.
National product:
GDP - exchange rate conversion - $11.5 billion (1990 est.)
National product real growth rate:
3% (1990 est.)
National product per capita:
$1,040 (1990 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
3% (1990 est.)
Unemployment rate:
25% (1990 est.)
Budget:
revenues $1.7 billion; expenditures $2.4 billion, including capital
expenditures of $422 million (FY90 est.)
Exports:
$1.8 billion (f.o.b., 1991)
commodities:
petroleum products 51%, coffee, beans, cocoa, aluminum products, timber
partners:
EC (particularly France) about 50%, US, African countries
Imports:
$1.2 billion (c.i.f., 1991)
commodities:
machines and electrical equipment, food, consumer goods, transport equipment
partners:
EC about 60%, France 41%, Germany 9%, African countries, Japan, US 4%
External debt:
$6 billion (1991)
Industrial production:
growth rate 6.4% (FY87); accounts for 30% of GDP
Electricity:
755,000 kW capacity; 2,190 million kWh produced, 190 kWh per capita (1991)
Industries:
petroleum production and refining, food processing, light consumer goods,
textiles, sawmills
Agriculture:
the agriculture and forestry sectors provide employment for the majority of
the population, contributing nearly 25% to GDP and providing a high degree
of self-sufficiency in staple foods; commercial and food crops include
coffee, cocoa, timber, cotton, rubber, bananas, oilseed, grains, livestock,
root starches
Economic aid:
US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-90), $479 million; Western (non-US)
countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-90), $4.75 billion; OPEC
bilateral aid (1979-89), $29 million; Communist countries (1970-89), $125
million

*Cameroon, Economy

Currency:
1 CFA franc (CFAF) = 100 centimes
Exchange rates:
Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (CFAF) per US$1 - 274.06 (January
1993), 264.69 (1992), 282.11 (1991), 272.26 (1990), 319.01 (1989),