Economy (Madagascar)
====================


     Overview:
         Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in the world. Agriculture,
         including fishing and forestry, is the mainstay of the economy, accounting
         for over 40% of GDP, employing about 80% of the labor force, and
         contributing to more than 70% of total export earnings. Industry is largely
         confined to the processing of agricultural products and textile
         manufacturing; in 1990 it accounted for only 16% of GDP and employed almost
         5% of the labor force. In 1986 the government introduced a five-year
         development plan that stressed self-sufficiency in food (mainly rice) by
         1990, increased production for exports, and reduced energy imports. After
         mid-1991, however, output dropped sharply because of protracted
         antigovernment strikes and demonstrations for political reform.
     GDP:
         exchange rate conversion - $2.4 billion, per capita $200; real growth rate
         -3.8% (1991 est.)
     Inflation rate (consumer prices):
         10% (1991)
     Unemployment rate:
         NA%
     Budget:
         revenues $390 million; expenditures $525 million, including capital
         expenditures of $240 million (1990 est.)
     Exports:
         $290 million (f.o.b., 1990 est.)
       commodities:
         coffee 45%, vanilla 15%, cloves 11%, sugar, petroleum products
       partners:
         France, Japan, Italy, Germany, US
     Imports:
         $436 million (f.o.b., 1990 est.)
       commodities:
         intermediate manufactures 30%, capital goods 28%, petroleum 15%, consumer
         goods 14%, food 13%
       partners:
         France, Germany, UK, other EC, US
     External debt:
         $4.4 billion (1991)
     Industrial production:
         growth rate 5.2% (1990 est.); accounts for 16% of GDP
     Electricity:
         125,000 kW capacity; 450 million kWh produced, 35 kWh per capita (1991)
     Industries:
         agricultural processing (meat canneries, soap factories, breweries,
         tanneries, sugar refining plants), light consumer goods industries
         (textiles, glassware), cement, automobile assembly plant, paper, petroleum
     Agriculture:
         accounts for 40% of GDP; cash crops - coffee, vanilla, sugarcane, cloves,
         cocoa; food crops - rice, cassava, beans, bananas, peanuts; cattle raising
         widespread; almost self-sufficient in rice
     Illicit drugs:
         illicit producer of cannabis (cultivated and wild varieties) used mostly for
         domestic consumption
     Economic aid:
         US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $136 million; Western (non-US)
         countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-89), $3,125 million;
         Communist countries (1970-89), $491 million
     Currency:
         Malagasy franc (plural - francs); 1 Malagasy franc (FMG) = 100 centimes