Overview: Tuvalu consists of a scattered group of nine coral atolls with poor soil. The country has no known mineral resources and few exports. Subsistence farming and fishing are the primary economic activities. The islands are too small and too remote for development of a tourist industry. Government revenues largely come from the sale of stamps and coins and worker remittances. Substantial income is received annually from an international trust fund established in 1987 by Australia, New Zealand, and the UK and supported also by Japan and South Korea.

National product: GNP - exchange rate conversion - $4.6 million (1989 est.)

National product real growth rate: NA%

National product per capita: $530 (1989 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 3.9% (1984)

Unemployment rate: NA%

Budget: revenues $4.3 million; expenditures $4.3 million, including capital expenditures of $NA (1989)

External debt: $NA

Industrial production: growth rate NA%

Electricity: 2,600 kW capacity; 3 million kWh produced, 330 kWh per capita (1990)

Industries: fishing, tourism, copra

Agriculture: coconuts

Economic aid: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-87), $1 million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-89), $101 million

Currency: 1 Tuvaluan dollar ($T) or 1 Australian dollar ($A)=100 cents

Exchange rates: Tuvaluan dollars ($T) or Australian dollars ($A) per US$1 - 1.4837 (January 1993), 1.3600 (1992), 1.2835 (1991), 1.2799 (1990), 1.2618 (1989), 1.2752 (1988)

Fiscal year: NA