(1998 est.)

GDP--real growth rate: -2% (1998 est.)

GDP--per capita: purchasing power parity?$3,300 (1998 est.)

GDP--composition by sector:
agriculture: 7.4%
industry: 42.1%
services: 50.5% (1997 est.)

Population below poverty line: 34.2% (1992 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 2.4%
highest 10%: 31.9% (1991)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 9.9% (1998 est.)

Labor force: 1.14 million (1996)

Labor force--by occupation: services 41%, agriculture 22.5%,
industry 19% (1989)

Unemployment rate: 16.5% (1997 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $2.27 billion
expenditures: $3.66 billion, including capital expenditures of
$1.265 billion (FY98/99 est.)

Industries: tourism, bauxite, textiles, food processing, light
manufactures

Industrial production growth rate: NA%

Electricity--production: 6.125 billion kWh (1996)

Electricity--production by source:
fossil fuel: 97.96%
hydro: 2.04%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (1996)

Electricity--consumption: 6.125 billion kWh (1996)

Electricity--exports: 0 kWh (1996)

Electricity--imports: 0 kWh (1996)

Agriculture--products: sugarcane, bananas, coffee, citrus,
potatoes, vegetables; poultry, goats, milk

Exports: $1.7 billion (1997)

Exports--commodities: alumina, bauxite, sugar, bananas, rum

Exports--partners: US 33.3%, EU (excluding UK and Norway) 17.1%,
Canada 14.1%, UK 13.4%, Norway 6.1%, Caricom 3.4%

Imports: $2.8 billion (1997)

Imports--commodities: machinery and transport equipment,
construction materials, fuel, food, chemicals

Imports--partners: US 47.7%, EU (excluding UK) 12.8%, Caricom
10.2%, Latin America 6.7%, UK 3.7% (1997)

Debt--external: $4.2 billion (1997 est.)

Economic aid--recipient: $102.7 million (1995)

Currency: 1 Jamaican dollar (J$) = 100 cents

Exchange rates: Jamaican dollars (J$) per US$1--35.57 (December
1998), 35.404 (1997), 37.120 (1996), 35.142 (1995), 33.086 (1994)

Fiscal year: 1 April--31 March

Communications

Telephones: 350,000 (1997 est.)

Telephone system: fully automatic domestic telephone network
domestic: NA
international: satellite earth stations--2 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean);
3 coaxial submarine cables

Radio broadcast stations: AM 1, FM 7, shortwave 0 (1997)

Radios: 1.973 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations: 7 (1997)

Televisions: 330,000 (1992 est.)

Transportation

Railways:
total: