tion below poverty line: 77% (1997 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 4.9%
highest 10%: 19.4% (1993)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 182% (1998)

Labor force: 4.3 million (1998)

Labor force--by occupation: industry and construction 40%,
agriculture and forestry 19%, services 41% (1997 est.)

Unemployment rate: 2.3% officially registered unemployed
(December 1998); large number of underemployed workers

Budget:
revenues: $4 billion
expenditures: $4.1 billion, including capital expenditures of $180
million (1997 est.)

Industries: tractors, metal-cutting machine tools, off-highway
dump trucks up to 110-metric-ton load capacity, wheel-type earth
movers for construction and mining, eight-wheel-drive,
high-flotation trucks with cargo capacity of 25 metric tons for use
in tundra and roadless areas, equipment for animal husbandry and
livestock feeding, motorcycles, television sets, chemical fibers,
fertilizer, linen fabric, wool fabric, radios, refrigerators, other
consumer goods

Industrial production growth rate: 11% (1998 est.)

Electricity--production: 26.1 billion kWh (1998)

Electricity--production by source:
fossil fuel: 99.92%
hydro: 0.08%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (1997)

Electricity--consumption: 33.7 billion kWh (1997)

Electricity--exports: 2.7 billion kWh (1997)

Electricity--imports: 10.3 billion kWh (1997)

Agriculture--products: grain, potatoes, vegetables, sugar beets,
flax; beef, milk

Exports: $7 billion (f.o.b., 1998)

Exports--commodities: machinery and transport equipment,
chemicals, foodstuffs

Exports--partners: Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Germany

Imports: $8.5 billion (c.i.f., 1998)

Imports--commodities: fuel, natural gas, industrial raw materials,
textiles, sugar, foodstuffs

Imports--partners: Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Germany

Debt--external: $1.03 billion (1998 est.)

Economic aid--recipient: $194.3 million (1995)

Currency: Belarusian rubel (BR)

Exchange rates: Belarusian rubels per US$1--139,000 (25 January
1999 official Belarusian exchange rate), 46,080 (2nd qtr 1998),
25,964 (1997), 15,500 (yearend 1996), 11,500 (yearend 1995), 10,600
(yearend 1994)

Fiscal year: calendar year

Communications

Telephones: 2.55 million (October 1998)

Telephone system: the Ministry of Telecommunications controls all
telecommunications through its carrier (a joint stock company