ry to
stabilize the economy or win renewed Dutch aid disbursements. High
inflation, high unemployment, widespread black market activity, and
hard currency shortfalls continue to mark the economy.
National product:
GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $1.17 billion (1993 est.)
National product real growth rate:
-0.3% (1993 est.)
National product per capita:
$2,800 (1993 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
109% (1993 est.)
Unemployment rate:
16.5% (1990)
Budget:
revenues:
$466 million
expenditures:
$716 million, including capital expenditures of $123 million (1989
est.)
Exports:
$290 million (f.o.b., 1993 est.)
commodities:
alumina, aluminum, shrimp and fish, rice, bananas
partners:
Norway 33%, Netherlands 26%, US 13%, Japan 6%, Brazil 6%, UK 3% (1992)
Imports:
$250 million (f.o.b., 1993 est.)
commodities:
capital equipment, petroleum, foodstuffs, cotton, consumer goods
partners:
US 42%, Netherlands 22%, Trinidad and Tobago 10%, Brazil 5% (1992)
External debt:
$180 million (March 1993 est.)
Industrial production:
growth rate -5% (1991 est.); accounts for 27% of GDP
Electricity:
capacity:
458,000 kW
production:
2.018 billion kWh
consumption per capita:
4,920 kWh (1992)
Industries:
bauxite mining, alumina and aluminum production, lumbering, food
processing, fishing
Agriculture:
accounts for 10.4% of GDP and 25% of export earnings; paddy rice
planted on 85% of arable land and represents 60% of total farm output;
other products - bananas, palm kernels, coconuts, plantains, peanuts,
beef, chicken; shrimp and forestry products of increasing importance;
self-sufficient in most foods
Economic aid:
recipient:
US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-83), $2.5 billion; Western
(non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-89), $1.5
billion
Currency:
1 Surinamese guilder, gulden, or florin (Sf.) = 100 cents
Exchange rates:
Surinamese guilders, gulden, or florins (Sf.) per US$1 - 1.7850 (fixed
rate); parallel rate 109 (January 1994)
Fiscal year:
calendar year

@Suriname, Communications

Railroads:
166 km total; 86 km 1.000-meter gauge, government owned, and 80 km
1.435-meter standard gauge; all single track
Highways:
total:
8,300 km
paved:
500 km
unpaved:
bauxite, gravel, crushed stone, improved earth 5,400 km; sand, clay
2,400 km
Inland waterways:
1,200 km; most important means of transport; o