Population below poverty line: NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 4.3%
highest 10%: 22.1% (1993)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 3.2% (1999 est.)

Labor force: 1.4 million (1997)

Labor force - by occupation: agriculture and forestry 16%, industry
41%, services 43% (1990)

Unemployment rate: 9.6% (1999 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $1.33 billion
expenditures: $1.27 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA
(1998 est.)

Industries: buses, vans, street and railroad cars, synthetic fibers,
agricultural machinery, fertilizers, washing machines, radios,
electronics, pharmaceuticals, processed foods, textiles; dependent on
imports for energy, raw materials, and intermediate products

Industrial production growth rate: -5% (1999 est.)

Electricity - production: 4.766 billion kWh (1998)

Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel: 29.58%
hydro: 70.42%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (1998)

Electricity - consumption: 4.882 billion kWh (1998)

Electricity - exports: 400 million kWh (1998)

Electricity - imports: 850 million kWh (1998)

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

Exports: $1.9 billion (f.o.b., 1999)

Exports - commodities: wood and wood products, machinery and
equipment, metals, textiles, foodstuffs

Exports - partners: Germany 16%, UK 14%, Russia 12%, Sweden 10% (1998)

Imports: $2.8 billion (f.o.b., 1998)

Imports - commodities: machinery and equipment, chemicals, fuels

Imports - partners: Germany 17%, Russia 12%, Finland 10%, Sweden 7%
(1998)

Debt - external: $212 million (1998)

Economic aid - recipient: $96.2 million (1995)

Currency: 1 Latvian lat (LVL) = 100 santims

Exchange rates: lats (LVL) per US$1 - 0.583 (January 2000),0.585
(1999), 0.590 (1998), 0.581 (1997), 0.551 (1996), 0.528 (1995)

Fiscal year: calendar year

@Latvia:Communications

Telephones - main lines in use: 748,000 (1997)

Telephones - mobile cellular: 175,348 (1999)

Telephone system: inadequate but is being modernized to provide an
international capability independent of the Moscow international
switch; more facilities are being installed for individual use
domestic: expansion underway in intercity trunk line connections,
rural exchanges, and mobile systems; still many unsatisfied subscriber
applications
international: international connections are now available via cable
and a satellite earth station at Riga,