Economy (Swaziland)
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Overview:
The economy is based on subsistence agriculture, which occupies most of the
labor force and contributes nearly 25% to GDP. Manufacturing, which includes
a number of agroprocessing factories, accounts for another quarter of GDP.
Mining has declined in importance in recent years; high-grade iron ore
deposits were depleted in 1978, and health concerns cut world demand for
asbestos. Exports of sugar and forestry products are the main earners of
hard currency. Surrounded by South Africa, except for a short border with
Mozambique, Swaziland is heavily dependent on South Africa, from which it
receives 75% of its imports and to which it sends about half of its exports.
GDP:
exchange rate conversion - $563 million, per capita $725; real growth rate
5.0% (1990 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
13% (1990)
Unemployment rate:
NA%
Budget:
revenues $335.4 million; expenditures $360.5 million, including capital
expenditures of $NA (FY93 est.)
Exports:
$557 million (f.o.b., 1990)
commodities:
soft drink concentrates, sugar, wood pulp, citrus, canned fruit
partners:
South Africa 50% (est.), EC, Canada
Imports:
$632 million (f.o.b., 1990)
commodities:
motor vehicles, machinery, transport equipment, petroleum products,
foodstuffs, chemicals
partners:
South Africa 75% (est.), Japan, Belgium, UK
External debt:
$290 million (1990)
Industrial production:
growth rate NA; accounts for 26% of GDP (1989)
Electricity:
60,000 kW capacity; 155 million kWh produced, 180 kWh per capita (1991)
Industries:
mining (coal and asbestos), wood pulp, sugar
Agriculture:
accounts for 23% of GDP and over 60% of labor force; mostly subsistence
agriculture; cash crops - sugarcane, cotton, maize, tobacco, rice, citrus
fruit, pineapples; other crops and livestock - corn, sorghum, peanuts,
cattle, goats, sheep; not self-sufficient in grain
Economic aid:
US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $142 million; Western (non-US)
countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-89), $518 million
Currency:
lilangeni (plural - emalangeni); 1 lilangeni (E) = 100 cents
Exchange rates:
emalangeni (E) per US$1 - 2.7814 (January 1992), 2.7563 (1991), 2.5863
(1990), 2.6166 (1989), 2.2611 (1988), 2.0350 (1987); note - the Swazi
emalangeni is at par with the South African rand
Fiscal year:
1 April - 31 March
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