hare:
lowest 10%: 1.8%
highest 10%: 39.7% (1995-96 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 6% (1999 est.)

Labor force: 6.6 million (1998)

Labor force - by occupation: services 45%, agriculture 38%, industry
17% (1998 est.)

Unemployment rate: 9.5% (1998 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $2.7 billion
expenditures: $4.2 billion, including capital expenditures of $1.1
billion (1998 est.)

Industries: processing of rubber, tea, coconuts, and other
agricultural commodities; clothing, cement, petroleum refining,
textiles, tobacco

Industrial production growth rate: 6.3% (1998)

Electricity - production: 5.505 billion kWh (1998)

Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel: 30.97%
hydro: 69.03%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (1998)

Electricity - consumption: 5.12 billion kWh (1998)

Electricity - exports: 0 kWh (1998)

Electricity - imports: 0 kWh (1998)

Agriculture - products: rice, sugarcane, grains, pulses, oilseed,
spices, tea, rubber, coconuts; milk, eggs, hides, beef

Exports: $4.7 billion (f.o.b., 1998)

Exports - commodities: textiles and apparel, tea, diamonds, coconut
products, petroleum products (1998)

Exports - partners: US 40%, UK 11%, Middle East 9%, Germany 5%, Japan
4% (1998)

Imports: $5.3 billion (f.o.b., 1998)

Imports - commodities: machinery and equipment, textiles, petroleum,
foodstuffs (1998)

Imports - partners: India 10%, Japan 10%, South Korea 8%, Hong Kong
7%, Taiwan 6% (1998)

Debt - external: $8.4 billion (1998)

Economic aid - recipient: $577 million (1998)

Currency: 1 Sri Lankan rupee (SLRe) = 100 cents

Exchange rates: Sri Lankan rupees (SLRe) per US$1 - 72.364 (January
2000), 70.402 (1999), 64.593 (1998), 58.995 (1997), 55.271 (1996),
51.252 (1995)

Fiscal year: calendar year

@Sri Lanka:Communications

Telephones - main lines in use: 494,509 (1998)

Telephones - mobile cellular: 228,604 (1999)

Telephone system: very inadequate domestic service, particularly in
rural areas; some hope for improvement with privatization of national
telephone company and encouragement to private investment; good
international service (1999)
domestic: national trunk network consists mostly of digital microwave
radio relay; fiber-optic links now in use in Colombo area and two
fixed wireless local loops have been installed; competition is strong
in mobile cellular systems; telephone density remains low at 2.6 main
lines per 100 persons (1999)
international: submarine cables to