Economy (Guatemala)
===================


     Overview:
         The economy is based on family and corporate agriculture, which accounts for
         26% of GDP, employs about 60% of the labor force, and supplies two-thirds of
         exports. Manufacturing, predominantly in private hands, accounts for about
         18% of GDP and 12% of the labor force. In both 1990 and 1991, the economy
         grew by 3%, the fourth and fifth consecutive years of mild growth. Inflation
         at 40% in 1990-91 was more than double the 1987-89 level.
     GDP:
         exchange rate conversion - $11.7 billion, per capita $1,260; real growth
         rate 3% (1991 est.)
     Inflation rate (consumer prices):
         40% (1991 est.)
     Unemployment rate:
         6.7%, with 30-40% underemployment (1989 est.)
     Budget:
         revenues $1.05 billion; expenditures $1.3 billion, including capital
         expenditures of $270 million (1989 est.)
     Exports:
         $1.16 billion (f.o.b., 1990)
       commodities:
         coffee 26%, sugar 13%, bananas 7%, beef 2%
       partners:
         US 39%, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Germany, Honduras
     Imports:
         $1.66 billion (c.i.f., 1990)
       commodities:
         fuel and petroleum products, machinery, grain, fertilizers, motor vehicles
       partners:
         US 40%, Mexico, Venezuela, Japan, Germany
     External debt:
         $2.6 billion (December 1990 est.)
     Industrial production:
         growth rate NA; accounts for 18% of GDP
     Electricity:
         802,600 kW capacity; 2,461 million kWh produced, 266 kWh per capita (1991)
     Industries:
         sugar, textiles and clothing, furniture, chemicals, petroleum, metals,
         rubber, tourism
     Agriculture:
         accounts for 26% of GDP; most important sector of economy and contributes
         two-thirds of export earnings; principal crops - sugarcane, corn, bananas,
         coffee, beans, cardamom; livestock - cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens; food
         importer
     Illicit drugs:
         illicit producer of opium poppy and cannabis for the international drug
         trade; the government has an active eradication program for cannabis and
         opium poppy; transit country for cocaine shipments
     Economic aid:
         US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-90), $1.1 billion; Western (non-US)
         countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-89), $7.92 billion
     Currency:
         quetzal (plural - quetzales); 1 quetzal (Q) = 100 centavos
     Exchange rates:
         free market quetzales (Q) per US$1 - 5.0854 (January 1992), 5.0289 (1991),
         2.8161 (1989), 2.6196 (1988), 2.500 (1987); note - black-market rate 2.800
         (May 1989)
     Fiscal year:
         calendar year