10%: 35.6% (1995)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 20% (1999)

Labor force: 9.9 million (1999)

Labor force - by occupation: services 64%, industry 23%, agriculture
13% (1997 est.)

Unemployment rate: 18% (1999 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $26.4 billion
expenditures: $27 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (2000
est.)

Industries: petroleum, iron ore mining, construction materials, food
processing, textiles, steel, aluminum, motor vehicle assembly

Industrial production growth rate: 0.5% (1995 est.)

Electricity - production: 70.39 billion kWh (1998)

Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel: 25.46%
hydro: 74.54%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (1998)

Electricity - consumption: 65.463 billion kWh (1998)

Electricity - exports: 0 kWh (1998)

Electricity - imports: 0 kWh (1998)

Agriculture - products: corn, sorghum, sugarcane, rice, bananas,
vegetables, coffee; beef, pork, milk, eggs; fish

Exports: $20.9 billion (f.o.b., 1999)

Exports - commodities: petroleum, bauxite and aluminum, steel,
chemicals, agricultural products, basic manufactures (1998)

Exports - partners: US and Puerto Rico 57%, Colombia, Brazil, Japan,
Germany, Netherlands, Italy (1999)

Imports: $11.8 billion (f.o.b., 1999)

Imports - commodities: raw materials, machinery and equipment,
transport equipment, construction materials (1999)

Imports - partners: US 53%, Japan, Colombia, Italy, Germany, France,
Brazil, Canada (1999)

Debt - external: $32 billion (1999)

Economic aid - recipient: $35 million with more assistance likely as a
result of flooding (1999)

Currency: 1 bolivar (Bs) = 100 centimos

Exchange rates: bolivares (Bs) per US$1 - 652.333 (January 2000),
605.717 (1999), 547.556 (1998), 488.635 (1997), 417.333 (1996),
176.843 (1995)

Fiscal year: calendar year

@Venezuela:Communications

Telephones - main lines in use: 2.6 million (1998)

Telephones - mobile cellular: 2 million (1998)

Telephone system: modern and expanding
domestic: domestic satellite system with 3 earth stations; recent
substantial improvement in telephone service in rural areas;
substantial increase in digitalization of exchanges and trunk lines;
installation of a national inter-urban fiber-optic network capable of
digital multimedia services
international: 3 submarine coaxial cables; satellite earth stations -
1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) and 1 PanAmSat; participating with
Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia in the construc