verview: The Bahamas is a stable, developing nation with an
economy heavily dependent on tourism and offshore banking. Tourism
alone accounts for more than 50% of GDP and directly or indirectly
employs 40% of the archipelago's labor force. A slowdown in the
expansion of the tourism sector - especially stopover travel from
Europe - led to a reduction in the country's GDP growth rate in 1995,
down to an estimated 2% from 3.5% in 1994. The construction sector
benefited from hotel rehabilitation and the government's ongoing
housing development program. Earnings from exports of vegetable and
citrus production have been decreasing since 1993 but were expected to
increase in 1996 due to storm damage to crops in Florida. Overall
growth prospects in the short run will depend heavily on the fortunes
of the tourism sector and continued income growth in the US, which
accounts for the majority of tourist visits.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $4.8 billion (1995 est.)

GDP - real growth rate: 2% (1995 est.)

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $18,700 (1995 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture : 3%
industry: 6%
services: 91% (1994)

Inflation rate - consumer price index: 2.1% (1995)

Labor force:
total: 136,900 (1993)
by occupation : government 30%, tourism 40%, business services 10%,
agriculture 5% (1995 est.)

Unemployment rate: 15% (1995 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $665 million
expenditures: $725 million, including capital expenditures of $94
million (FY95/96 est.)

Industries: tourism, banking, cement, oil refining and transshipment,
salt production, rum, aragonite, pharmaceuticals, spiral-welded steel
pipe

Industrial production growth rate: NA%

Electricity - capacity: 267,000 kW (1993)

Electricity - production: 874 million kWh (1993)

Electricity - consumption per capita: 2,717 kWh (1993)

Agriculture - products: citrus, vegetables; poultry

Exports:
total value: $267.5 million (f.o.b., 1995)
commodities: pharmaceuticals, cement, rum, crawfish, refined petroleum
products
partners: US 24%, Spain 14%, UK 7%, Norway 7%, France 6%, Italy 5%
(1995 est.)

Imports:
total value : $1.17 billion (f.o.b., 1995)
commodities: foodstuffs, manufactured goods, crude oil, vehicles,
electronics
partners : US 29%, Finland 10%, Iran 10%, Denmark 8%

Debt - external: $393 million (1995)

Economic aid: $NA

Currency: 1 Bahamian dollar (B$) = 100 cents

Exchange rates: Bahamian dollar (B$) per US