rma is a resource-rich country that suffers from
abject rural poverty. The military regime took steps in the early 1990s to
liberalize the economy after decades of failure under the "Burmese Way to
Socialism", but those efforts have since stalled. Burma has been unable
to achieve monetary or fiscal stability, resulting in an economy that
suffers from serious macroeconomic imbalances - including an official
exchange rate that overvalues the Burmese kyat by more than 100 times
the market rate. In addition, most overseas development assistance
ceased after the junta suppressed the democracy movement in 1988 and
subsequently ignored the results of the 1990 election. Burma is data
poor, and official statistics are often dated and inaccurate. Published
estimates of Burma's foreign trade are greatly understated because of
the size of the black market and border trade - often estimated to be
one to two times the official economy.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $63 billion (2001 est.)

GDP - real growth rate: 2.3% (2001 est.)

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $1,500 (2001 est.)

GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 42% industry: 17% services:
41% (2000 est.)

Population below poverty line: 25% (2000 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: 2.8%
highest 10%: 32.4% (1998)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 20% (2001 est.)

Labor force: 23.7 million (1999 est.)

Labor force - by occupation: agriculture 65%, industry 10%, services 25%
(1999 est.)

Unemployment rate: 5.1% (2001 est.)

Budget: revenues: $7.9 billion expenditures: $12.2 billion, including
capital expenditures of $5.7 billion (FY96/97)

Industries: agricultural processing; knit and woven apparel; wood and
wood products; copper, tin, tungsten, iron; construction materials;
pharmaceuticals; fertilizer

Industrial production growth rate: NA%

Electricity - production: 4.766 billion kWh (2000)

Electricity - production by source: fossil fuel: 83.3% hydro: 16.7%
other: 0% (2000) nuclear: 0%

Electricity - consumption: 4.432 billion kWh (2000)

Electricity - exports: 0 kWh (2000)

Electricity - imports: 0 kWh (2000)

Agriculture - products: rice, pulses, beans, sesame, groundnuts,
sugarcane; hardwood; fish and fish products

Exports: $1.8 billion (f.o.b., 2001)

Exports - commodities: apparel 55%, foodstuffs 18%, wood products 13%,
precious stones 2% (2000)

Exports - partners: