onsumer prices):
17.6% (December 1993 over December 1992)
Unemployment rate:
2.3% in urban areas (1992); substantial underemployment
Budget:
deficit $15.6 billion (1993)
Exports:
$92 billion (f.o.b., 1993)
commodities:
textiles, garments, footwear, toys, crude oil
partners:
Hong Kong, US, Japan, Germany, South Korea, Russia (1993)
Imports:
$104 billion (c.i.f., 1993)
commodities:
rolled steel, motor vehicles, textile machinery, oil products
partners:
Japan, Taiwan, US, Hong Kong, Germany, South Korea (1993)
External debt:
$80 billion (1993 est.)
Industrial production:
growth rate 20.8% (1992)
Electricity:
capacity:
158,690,000 kW
production:
740 billion kWh
consumption per capita:
630 kWh (1992)
Industries:
iron and steel, coal, machine building, armaments, textiles,
petroleum, cement, chemical fertilizers, consumer durables, food
processing
Agriculture:
accounts for 26% of GNP; among the world's largest producers of rice,
potatoes, sorghum, peanuts, tea, millet, barley, and pork; commercial
crops include cotton, other fibers, and oilseeds; produces variety of
livestock products; basically self-sufficient in food; fish catch of
13.35 million metric tons (including fresh water and pond raised)
(1991)
Illicit drugs:
illicit producer of opium; bulk of production is in Yunnan Province;
transshipment point for heroin produced in the Golden Triangle
Economic aid:
donor:
to less developed countries (1970-89) $7 billion
recipient:
US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-87), $220.7 million; Western
(non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-87), $13.5
billion
Currency:
1 yuan (Y) = 10 jiao
Exchange rates:
yuan (Y) per US$1 - 8.7000 (January 1994), 5.7620 (1993), 5.5146
(1992), 5.3234 (1991), 4.7832 (1990), 3.7651 (1989)
note:
beginning 1 January 1994, the People's Bank of China quotes the
midpoint rate against the US dollar based on the previous day's
prevailing rate in the interbank foreign exchange market
Fiscal year:
calendar year

@China, Communications

Railroads:
total about 64,000 km; 54,000 km of common carrier lines, of which
53,400 km are 1.435-meter gauge (standard) and 600 km are 1.000-meter
gauge (narrow); 11,200 km of standard gauge common carrier route are
double tracked and 6,900 km are electrified (1990); an additional
10,000 km of varying gauges (0.762 to 1.067-meter) are dedicated