landlocked economy, subsistence
agriculture occupies more than 60% of the population. Manufacturing
features a number of agroprocessing factories. Mining has declined in
importance in recent years; high-grade iron ore deposits were depleted
by 1978, and health concerns have cut world demand for asbestos.
Exports of soft drink concentrate, sugar, and wood pulp are the main
earners of hard currency. Surrounded by South Africa, except for a
short border with Mozambique, Swaziland is heavily dependent on South
Africa from which it receives four-fifths of its imports and to which
it sends three-fourths of its exports. Remittances from Swazi workers
in South African mines supplement domestically earned income by as
much as 20%. The government is trying to improve the atmosphere for
foreign investment. Overgrazing, soil depletion, and drought persist
as problems for the future.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $4.2 billion (1999 est.)

GDP - real growth rate: 3.1% (1999 est.)

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $4,200 (1999 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 10%
industry: 48%
services: 42% (1997 est.)

Population below poverty line: NA%

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

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

Labor force: NA

Labor force - by occupation: private sector about 70%, public sector
about 30%

Unemployment rate: 22% (1995 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $400 million
expenditures: $450 million, including capital expenditures of $115
million (FY96/97)

Industries: mining (coal and asbestos), wood pulp, sugar, soft drink
concentrates

Industrial production growth rate: 3.7% (FY95/96)

Electricity - production: 420 million kWh (1998)

Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel: 48.81%
hydro: 51.19%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (1998)

Electricity - consumption: 1.078 billion kWh (1998)

Electricity - exports: 0 kWh (1998)

Electricity - imports: 687 million kWh
note: imports about 60% of its electricity from South Africa (1998)

Agriculture - products: sugarcane, cotton, corn, tobacco, rice,
citrus, pineapples, sorghum, peanuts; cattle, goats, sheep

Exports: $825 million (f.o.b., 1999)

Exports - commodities: soft drink concentrates, sugar, wood pulp,
cotton yarn, refrigerators, citrus and canned fruit

Exports - partners: South Africa 74%, EU 12%, Mozambique 5%, US, North
Korea (1997)

Imports: $1.05 bi