prices): 15% (1997 est.)

Labor force: NA

Labor force--by occupation: agriculture 85% (subsistence farming,
herding, and fishing)

Unemployment rate: NA%

Budget:
revenues: $198 million
expenditures: $218 million, including capital expenditures of $146
million (1998 est.)

Industries: cotton textiles, meat packing, beer brewing, natron
(sodium carbonate), soap, cigarettes, construction materials

Industrial production growth rate: 5% (1995)

Electricity--production: 90 million kWh (1996)

Electricity--production by source:
fossil fuel: 100%
hydro: 0%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (1996)

Electricity--consumption: 90 million kWh (1996)

Electricity--exports: 0 kWh (1996)

Electricity--imports: 0 kWh (1996)

Agriculture--products: cotton, sorghum, millet, peanuts, rice,
potatoes, manioc (tapioca); cattle, sheep, goats, camels

Exports: $220 million (f.o.b., 1998 est.)

Exports--commodities: cotton, cattle, textiles

Exports--partners: Portugal 30%, Germany 14%, Thailand, Costa
Rica, South Africa, France (1997)

Imports: $252 million (f.o.b., 1998 est.)

Imports--commodities: machinery and transportation equipment,
industrial goods, petroleum products, foodstuffs, textiles

Imports--partners: France 41%, Nigeria 10%, Cameroon 7%, India 6%
(1997)

Debt--external: $875 million (1995 est.)

Economic aid--recipient: $238.3 million (1995); note?$125 million
committed by Taiwan (August 1997); $30 million committed by African
Development Bank

Currency: 1 Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (CFAF) = 100
centimes

Exchange rates: Communaute Financiere Africaine Francs (CFAF) per
US$1--560.01 (December 1998), 589.95 (1998), 583.67 (1997), 511.55
(1996), 499.15 (1995), 555.20 (1994)

Fiscal year: calendar year

Communications

Telephones: 5,000 (1987 est.)

Telephone system: primitive system
domestic: fair system of radiotelephone communication stations
international: satellite earth station--1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations: AM 2, FM 3, shortwave 3 (one of the
shortwave stations has three frequencies) (1998)

Radios: NA

Television broadcast stations: 1 (broadcasts 1800 to 2100 hours,
four days per week) (1997)

Televisions: 7,000 (1991 est.)

Transportation

Railways: 0 km

Highways:
total: 33,400 km
paved: 267 km
unpaved: 33,133 km (1996 est.)

Waterways: 2,000 km navigable

Ports and harbor