ration initiatives, to
reduce the unacceptably high unemployment rate, and to encourage
direct foreign investment.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $2.65 billion (1996 est.)

GDP - real growth rate: 3.5% (1996 est.)

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $10,300 (1996 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 6.4%
industry: 39.3%
services: 54.3% (1994)

Inflation rate - consumer price index: 1.8% (1995)

Labor force:
total: 126,000 (1993)
by occupation: services and government 41%, commerce 15%,
manufacturing and construction 18%, transportation, storage,
communications, and financial institutions 8%, agriculture 6%,
utilities 2% (1992 est.)

Unemployment rate: 16.2% (1996)

Budget:
revenues: $550 million
expenditures: $710 million, including capital expenditures of $86
million (FY95/96 est.)

Industries: tourism, sugar, light manufacturing, component assembly
for export

Industrial production growth rate: 7.7% (1995)

Electricity - capacity: 153,000 kW (1995)

Electricity - production: 644 million kWh (1995)

Electricity - consumption per capita: 2,208 kWh (1995 est.)

Agriculture - products: sugarcane, vegetables, cotton

Exports:
total value: $235 million (f.o.b., 1995)
commodities: sugar and molasses, rum, other foods and beverages,
chemicals, electrical components, clothing
partners: US 13%, UK 10%, Trinidad and Tobago 9%, Windward Islands 8%

Imports:
total value: $763 million (c.i.f., 1995)
commodities: consumer goods, machinery, foodstuffs, construction
materials, chemicals, fuel, electrical components
partners: US 36%, UK 11%, Trinidad and Tobago 11%, Japan 3%

Debt - external: $359 million (December 1996)

Economic aid: $NA

Currency: 1 Barbadian dollar (Bds$) = 100 cents

Exchange rates: Barbadian dollars (Bds$) per US$1 - 2.0113 (fixed
rate)

Fiscal year: 1 April - 31 March

@Barbados:Communications

Telephones: 87,343 (1991 est.)

Telephone system:
domestic: island wide automatic telephone system
international: satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean);
tropospheric scatter to Trinidad and Saint Lucia

Radio broadcast stations: AM 3, FM 2, shortwave 0

Radios: NA

Television broadcast stations: 2 (1 pay)

Televisions: 69,350 (1993 est.)

@Barbados:Transportation

Railways: 0 km

Highways:
total: 1,610 km
paved : 1,542 km
unpaved: 68 km (1995 est.)

Ports and harbors: Bridgetown

Merchant marine:
total: 51 ships (1,000 GRT or