nned economy with government
ownership and control of major productive enterprises. Since 1986,
however, the government has been decentralizing control and
encouraging private enterprise. Laos is a landlocked country with a
primitive infrastructure; it has no railroads, a rudimentary road
system, limited external and internal telecommunications, and
electricity available in only a limited area. Subsistence agriculture
is the main occupation, accounting for over 60% of GDP and providing
about 85-90% of total employment. The predominant crop is rice. For
the foreseeable future the economy will continue to depend for its
survival on foreign aid from the IMF and other international sources;
aid from the former USSR and Eastern Europe has been cut sharply.
National product:
GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $4.1 billion (1993 est.)
National product real growth rate:
7% (1992 est.)
National product per capita:
$900 (1993 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
9.8% (1992 est.)
Unemployment rate:
21% (1989 est.)
Budget:
revenues:
$83 million
expenditures:
$188.5 million, including capital expenditures of $94 million (1990
est.)
Exports:
$133 million (f.o.b., 1992 est.)
commodities:
electricity, wood products, coffee, tin
partners:
Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, FSU, US, China
Imports:
$266 million (c.i.f., 1992 est.)
commodities:
food, fuel oil, consumer goods, manufactures
partners:
Thailand, FSU, Japan, France, Vietnam, China
External debt:
$1.1 billion (1990 est.)
Industrial production:
growth rate 12% (1991 est.); accounts for about 18% of GDP (1991 est.)
Electricity:
capacity:
226,000 kW
production:
990 million kWh
consumption per capita:
220 kWh (1992)
Industries:
tin and gypsum mining, timber, electric power, agricultural
processing, construction
Agriculture:
accounts for 60% of GDP and employs most of the work force;
subsistence farming predominates; normally self-sufficient in
nondrought years; principal crops - rice (80% of cultivated land),
sweet potatoes, vegetables, corn, coffee, sugarcane, cotton; livestock
- buffaloes, hogs, cattle, poultry
Illicit drugs:
illicit producer of cannabis, opium poppy for the international drug
trade, third-largest opium producer (180 metric tons in 1993)
Economic aid:
recipient:
US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-79), $276 million; Western
(non-US) countries, ODA and OOF