capita: $1,380 (1995 est.)

GDP composition by sector:
agriculture: 36.8%
industry: 12.6%
services: 50.6% (1993)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 55% (1994 est.)

Labor force: 1.9 million (1987)
by occupation: agriculture 60%, transport, commerce, and public
services 38%, industry less than 2%

Unemployment rate: NA%

Budget:
revenues: $272 million (1993 est.)
expenditures: $375 million, including capital expenditures of $84
million (1993 est.)

Industries: textiles, cigarettes; beverages, food; construction
materials, petroleum

Industrial production growth rate: NA%

Electricity:
capacity: 30,000 kW
production: 10 million kWh
consumption per capita: 25 kWh (1993)

Agriculture: corn, sorghum, cassava (tapioca), yams, beans, rice,
cotton, palm oil, peanuts; poultry, livestock

Illicit drugs: transshipment point for narcotics associated with
Nigerian trafficking organizations and most commonly destined for
Western Europe and the US

Exports: $310 million (f.o.b., 1994 est.)
commodities: cotton, crude oil, palm products, cocoa
partners: France, Morocco 37%, Portugal 14%, Spain, Italy, UK, US,
Libya

Imports: $439 million (c.i.f., 1994 est.)
commodities: foodstuffs, beverages, tobacco, petroleum products,
intermediate goods, capital goods, light consumer goods
partners: France 24%, Thailand 12%, Netherlands 7%, US 5%, China,
Hong Kong

External debt: $1.5 billion (1993 est.)

Economic aid:
recipient: ODA, $NA

Currency: 1 Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (CFAF) = 100
centimes

Exchange rates: CFA francs (CFAF) per US$1 - 500.56 (January
1996), 499.15 (1995), 555.20 (1994), 283.16 (1993), 264.69 (1992),
282.11 (1991)
note: beginning 12 January 1994 the CFA franc was devalued to CFAF
100 per French franc from CFAF 50 at which it had been fixed since
1948

Fiscal year: calendar year

Transportation
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Railways:
total: 578 km (single track) (1995 est.)
narrow gauge: 578 km 1.000-m gauge

Highways:
total: 6,070 km
paved: 1,214 km
unpaved: 4,856 km (1992 est.)

Waterways: navigable along small sections, important only locally

Ports: Cotonou, Porto-Novo

Merchant marine: none

Airports:
total: 5
with paved runways 2 438 to 3 047 m: 2
with unpaved runways 1 524 to 2 437 m: 1
with unpaved runways 914 to 1 523 m: 2 (1995 est.)

Communications
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Telephones: