8 est.)

GDP--real growth rate: -3.5% (1998 est.)

GDP--per capita: purchasing power parity?$710 (1998 est.)

GDP--composition by sector:
agriculture: 59%
industry: 15%
services: 26% (1995 est.)

Population below poverty line: NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: NA%
highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 147% (1998 est.)

Labor force: 14.51 million (1993 est.)

Labor force--by occupation: agriculture 65%, industry 16%,
services 19% (1991 est.)

Unemployment rate: NA%

Budget:
revenues: $269 million
expenditures: $244 million, including capital expenditures of $24
million (1996 est.)

Industries: mining, mineral processing, consumer products
(including textiles, footwear, cigarettes, processed foods and
beverages), cement, diamonds

Industrial production growth rate: NA%

Electricity--production: 6.4 billion kWh (1996)

Electricity--production by source:
fossil fuel: 6.25%
hydro: 93.75%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (1996)

Electricity--consumption: 6.265 billion kWh (1996)

Electricity--exports: 195 million kWh (1996)

Electricity--imports: 60 million kWh (1996)

Agriculture--products: coffee, sugar, palm oil, rubber, tea,
quinine, cassava (tapioca), palm oil, bananas, root crops, corn,
fruits; wood products

Exports: $1.6 billion (f.o.b., 1998 est.)

Exports--commodities: diamonds, copper, coffee, cobalt, crude oil

Exports--partners: Benelux 43%, US 22%, South Africa 8%, France,
Germany, Italy, UK, Japan (1997)

Imports: $819 million (f.o.b., 1998 est.)

Imports--commodities: consumer goods, foodstuffs, mining and other
machinery, transport equipment, fuels

Imports--partners: South Africa 21%, Benelux 14%, China 8%,
Netherlands, US, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK (1997)

Debt--external: $15 billion (1997 est.)

Economic aid--recipient: $195.3 million (1995)

Currency: Congolese franc (CF)

Exchange rates: Congolese francs (CF) per US$1--2.5 (January
1999); new zaires (Z) per US$1--115,000 (January 1998), 83,764
(October 1996), 7,024 (1995), 1,194 (1994)
note: on 30 June 1998 the Congolese franc (CF) was introduced,
replacing the new zaire; 1 Congolese franc (CF)=100,000 new zaires

Fiscal year: calendar year

Communications

Telephones: 34,000 (1991 est.)

Telephone system:
domestic: barely adequate wire and microwave radio relay service in
and between urban areas;