ctor:
agriculture: 18%
industry: 20%
services: 62% (1995 est.)

Population below poverty line: NA%

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

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 8% (1998 est.)

Labor force: NA

Unemployment rate: NA%

Budget:
revenues: $226 million
expenditures: $453 million, including capital expenditures of $88
million (1996 est.)

Industries: food processing, beverages, clothing and textiles

Industrial production growth rate: NA%

Electricity--production: NA kWh

Electricity--production by source:
fossil fuel: NA%
hydro: NA%
nuclear: NA%
other: NA%

Electricity--consumption: NA kWh

Electricity--exports: NA kWh

Electricity--imports: NA kWh

Agriculture--products: sorghum, lentils, vegetables, maize,
cotton, tobacco, coffee, sisal; livestock, goats; fish

Exports: $95 million (1996 est.)

Exports--commodities: livestock, sorghum, textiles, food, small
manufactures

Exports--partners: Ethiopia 67%, Sudan 10%, US 8%, Italy 4%, Saudi
Arabia, Yemen (1996)

Imports: $514 million (1996 est.)

Imports--commodities: processed goods, machinery, petroleum
products

Imports--partners: Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, Italy, United Arab
Emirates (1996)

Debt--external: $46 million (1996 est.)

Economic aid--recipient: $149.9 million (1995)

Currency: 1 nafka = 100 cents

Exchange rates: nakfa per US$1 = 7.6 (January 1999), 7.2 (March
1998 est.)
note: following independence from Ethiopia, Eritrea continued to use
Ethiopian currency until November 1997 when Eritrea issued its own
currency, the nakfa, at approximately the same rate as the birr,
i.e., 7.2 nakfa per US$1

Fiscal year: calendar year

Communications

Telephones: NA

Telephone system:
domestic: very inadequate; about 4 telephones per 100 families, most
of which are in Asmara; government is seeking international tenders
to improve the system
international: NA

Radio broadcast stations: AM 2, FM 0, shortwave 1

Radios: NA

Television broadcast stations: 1 (government controlled) (1997)

Televisions: NA

Transportation

Railways:
total: 307 km
narrow gauge: 307 km 0.950-m gauge (1995 est.)
note: nonoperational since 1978 except for about a 5 km stretch that
was reopened in Massawa in 1994; rehabilitation of the remainder and
of the rolling stock is under way; links Ak'ordat and Asmara