Suriname--Economy

CIA FactbookThe World Factbook 1993: Suriname Economy

Overview: The economy is dominated by the bauxite industry, which accounts for 15% of GDP and about 70% of export earnings. The economy has been in trouble since the Dutch ended development aid in 1982. A drop in world bauxite prices which started in the late 1970s and continued until late 1986 was followed by the outbreak of a guerrilla insurgency in the interior that crippled the important bauxite sector. Although the insurgency has since ebbed and the bauxite sector recovered, a military coup in December 1990 reflected continued political instability and deterred investment and economic reform. High inflation, high unemployment, widespread black market activity, and hard currency shortfalls continue to mark the economy.

National product: GDP - exchange rate conversion - $1.35 billion (1991 est.)

National product real growth rate: -2.5% (1991 est.)

National product per capita: $3,300 (1991 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 26% (1991)

Unemployment rate: 16.5% (1990)

Budget: revenues $466 million; expenditures $716 million, including capital expenditures of $123 million (1989 est.)

Exports: $417 million (f.o.b., 1992 est.) commodities: alumina, aluminum, shrimp and fish, rice, bananas partners: Norway 36%, Netherlands 28%, US 11%, Japan 7%, Brazil 5%, UK 5% (1989) Imports: $514 million (f.o.b., 1992 est.) commodities: capital equipment, petroleum, foodstuffs, cotton, consumer goods partners: US 41%, Netherlands 24%, Trinidad and Tobago 9%, Brazil 4% (1989)

External debt: $138 million (1990 est.)

Industrial production: growth rate -5.0% (1991 est.); accounts for 27% of GDP

Electricity: 458,000 kW capacity; 2,018 million kWh produced, 4,920 kWh per capita (1992)

Industries: bauxite mining, alumina and aluminum production, lumbering, food processing, fishing

Agriculture: accounts for 10.4% of GDP and 25% of export earnings; paddy rice planted on 85% of arable land and represents 60% of total farm output; other products - bananas, palm kernels, coconuts, plantains, peanuts, beef, chicken; shrimp and forestry products of increasing importance; self-sufficient in most foods

Economic aid: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-83), $2.5 million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-89), $1.5 billion

Currency: 1 Surinamese guilder, gulden, or florin (Sf.)=100 cents

Exchange rates: Surinamese guilders, gulden, or florins (Sf.) per US$1 - 1.7850 (fixed rate until October 1992), 25.04 (January 1992)

Fiscal year: calendar year