Inflation rate (consumer prices):
21% (1992 est.)
Unemployment rate:
NA%
Budget:
revenues:
$416 million
expenditures:
$498 million, including capital expenditures of $NA (1992 est.)
Exports:
$413 million (f.o.b., 1992)
commodities:
tobacco, tea, sugar, coffee, peanuts, wood products
partners:
US, UK, Zambia, South Africa, Germany
Imports:
$737 million (c.i.f., 1992)
commodities:
food, petroleum products, semimanufactures, consumer goods,
transportation equipment
partners:
South Africa, Japan, US, UK, Zimbabwe
External debt:
$1.8 billion (December 1991 est.)
Industrial production:
growth rate 3.5% (1992 est.); accounts for about 15% of GDP (1992
est.)
Electricity:
capacity:
190,000 kW
production:
620 million kWh
consumption per capita:
65 kWh (1992)
Industries:
agricultural processing (tea, tobacco, sugar), sawmilling, cement,
consumer goods
Agriculture:
accounts for 40% of GDP; cash crops - tobacco, sugarcane, cotton, tea,
and corn; subsistence crops - potatoes, cassava, sorghum, pulses;
livestock - cattle, goats
Economic aid:
recipient:
US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $215 million; Western
(non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-89), $2.15
billion
Currency:
1 Malawian kwacha (MK) = 100 tambala
Exchange rates:
Malawian kwacha (MK) per US$1 - 4.4598 (November 1993), 3.6033 (1992),
2.8033 (1991), 2.7289 (1990), 2.7595 (1989)
Fiscal year:
1 April - 31 March

@Malawi, Communications

Railroads:
789 km 1.067-meter gauge
Highways:
total:
13,135 km
paved:
2,364 km
unpaved:
gravel, crushed stone, stabilized earth 251 km; earth, improved earth
10,520 km
Inland waterways:
Lake Nyasa (Lake Malawi); Shire River, 144 km
Ports:
Chipoka, Monkey Bay, Nkhata Bay, and Nkotakota - all on Lake Nyasa
(Lake Malawi)
Airports:
total:
47
usable:
41
with permanent-surface runways:
6
with runways over 3,659 m:
0
with runways 2,440-3,659 m:
1
with runways 1,220-2,439 m:
10
Telecommunications:
fair system of open-wire lines, radio relay links, and radio
communications stations; 42,250 telephones; broadcast stations - 10
AM, 17 FM, no TV; satellite earth stations - 1 Indian Ocean INTELSAT
and 1 Atlantic Ocean INTELSAT
Note:
a majority of exports would normally go through Mozambique on the
Beira, Nacala, and Limgogo railroads, but now most go through South
Africa beca