government financial operations, poverty alleviation, and human
rights.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $12.5 billion (1999 est.)

GDP - real growth rate: 6.3% (1999 est.)

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $2,650 (1999 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 34%
industry: 22%
services: 44% (1998)

Population below poverty line: 50% (1999 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 1.6%
highest 10%: 39.8% (1993)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 12% (1999 est.)

Labor force: 1.7 million (1999)

Labor force - by occupation: services 43%, agriculture 42%, industry
15% (1999 est.)

Unemployment rate: 10.5% (1999 est.); considerable underemployment

Budget:
revenues: $527 million
expenditures: $617 million, including capital expenditures of $NA
(1998 est.)

Industries: food processing, chemicals, machinery and metal products,
textiles, clothing, petroleum refining and distribution, beverages,
footwear, wood

Industrial production growth rate: 3.2% (1998 est.)

Electricity - production: 2.714 billion kWh (1998)

Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel: 53.43%
hydro: 35.34%
nuclear: 0%
other: 11.23% (1998)

Electricity - consumption: 2.52 billion kWh (1998)

Electricity - exports: 99 million kWh (1998)

Electricity - imports: 95 million kWh (1998)

Agriculture - products: coffee, bananas, sugarcane, cotton, rice,
corn, tobacco, sesame, soya, beans; beef, veal, pork, poultry, dairy
products

Exports: $573 million (f.o.b., 1998 est.)

Exports - commodities: coffee, shrimp and lobster, cotton, tobacco,
beef, sugar, bananas; gold

Exports - partners: US 35%, Germany 13%, El Salvador 10%, Spain 4%,
Costa Rica 4%, France 2% (1998)

Imports: $1.5 billion (c.i.f., 1999 est.)

Imports - commodities: machinery and equipment, raw materials,
petroleum products, consumer goods

Imports - partners: US 31%, Costa Rica 11%, Guatemala 8%, Venezuela
6%, El Salvador 5%, Mexico 4% (1998)

Debt - external: $5.7 billion (1999 est.)

Economic aid - recipient: pledges of $1.4 billion in new aid in 1999

Currency: 1 gold cordoba (C$) = 100 centavos

Exchange rates: gold cordobas (C$) per US$1 - 12.29 (December
1999),11.81 (1999), 10.58 (1998), 9.45 (1997), 8.44 (1996), 7.55
(1995)

Fiscal year: calendar year

@Nicaragua:Communications

Telephones - main lines in use: 140,000 (1996)

Telephones - mobile cellular: 4,400 (1995)

Telephone syste