include a shortage of skilled labor and an inadequate and poorly
maintained transportation system. Also, electricity has been in short
supply; the privatization of the sector in August 1999 is expected to
improve prospects. The government must persist in efforts to manage
its sizable external debt and extend its privatization program.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $1.86 billion (1999 est.)

GDP - real growth rate: 1.8% (1999 est.)

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $2,500 (1999 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 34.7%
industry: 32.5%
services: 32.8% (1998 est.)

Population below poverty line: NA%

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

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 5.5% (1999 est.)

Labor force: 245,492 (1992)

Labor force - by occupation: agriculture NA%, industry NA%, services
NA%

Unemployment rate: 12% (1992 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $220.1 million
expenditures: $286.4 million, including capital expenditures of $86.6
million (1998)

Industries: bauxite, sugar, rice milling, timber, fishing (shrimp),
textiles, gold mining

Industrial production growth rate: 7.1% (1997 est.)

Electricity - production: 325 million kWh (1998)

Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel: 98.46%
hydro: 1.54%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (1998)

Electricity - consumption: 302 million kWh (1998)

Electricity - exports: 0 kWh (1998)

Electricity - imports: 0 kWh (1998)

Agriculture - products: sugar, rice, wheat, vegetable oils; beef,
pork, poultry, dairy products; forest and fishery potential not
exploited

Exports: $574 million (f.o.b., 1999 est.)

Exports - commodities: sugar, gold, bauxite/alumina, rice, shrimp,
molasses, rum, timber

Exports - partners: US 25%, Canada 24%, UK 19%, Netherlands Antilles
11%, Jamaica 5% (1998)

Imports: $620 million (c.i.f., 1999 est.)

Imports - commodities: manufactures, machinery, petroleum, food

Imports - partners: US 28%, Trinidad and Tobago 21%, Netherlands
Antilles 14%, UK 7%, Japan 5% (1998)

Debt - external: $1.4 billion (1998)

Economic aid - recipient: $84 million (1995), Heavily Indebted Poor
Country Initiative (HIPC) $253 million (1997)

Currency: 1 Guyanese dollar (G$) = 100 cents

Exchange rates: Guyanese dollars (G$) per US$1 - 180.4 (December
1999), 178.0 (1999), 150.5 (1998), 142.4 (1997), 140.4 (1996), 142.0
(1995)

Fiscal year: calendar year

@Guyana:Communica