officials, including President
SAMPER, solicited contributions from drug traffickers during the
1994 election campaign. The slowdown in the growth of
labor-intensive industries such as manufacturing has caused a small
rise in unemployment and interfered with President SAMPER'S plans to
lower the country's poverty rate, which has remained at about 40%
despite the expanding economy. Nevertheless, the booming oil sector,
growing foreign investment, and the fundamental stability of the
economy promise to keep growth positive for the foreseeable future,
barring severe, unpredictable shocks from developments in the
political or international arenas.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $192.5 billion (1995 est.)

GDP real growth rate: 5.3% (1995 est.)

GDP per capita: $5,300 (1995 est.)

GDP composition by sector:
agriculture: 21.5%
industry: 29%
services: 49.5%

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 19.5% (1995 est.)

Labor force: 12 million (1990)
by occupation: services 46%, agriculture 30%, industry 24% (1990)

Unemployment rate: 9.5% (1995)

Budget:
revenues: $NA
expenditures: $24 billion including capital expenditures of $NA
(1996 est.)

Industries: textiles, food processing, oil, clothing and footwear,
beverages, chemicals, cement; gold, coal, emeralds

Industrial production growth rate: 3.5% (1995 est.)

Electricity:
capacity: 10,220,000 kW
production: 33 billion kWh
consumption per capita: 890 kWh (1993)

Agriculture: coffee, cut flowers, bananas, rice, tobacco, corn,
sugarcane, cocoa beans, oilseed, vegetables; forest products; shrimp
farming

Illicit drugs: illicit producer of coca, opium poppies, and
cannabis; about 50,900 hectares of coca under cultivation in 1995;
the world's largest processor of coca derivatives into cocaine;
supplier of cocaine to the US and other international drug markets;
active aerial eradication program seeks to virtually eliminate coca
and opium crops by 1997

Exports: $10.5 billion (f.o.b., 1995 est.)
commodities: petroleum, coffee, coal, bananas, fresh cut flowers
partners: US 39%, EC 25.7%, Japan 2.9%, Venezuela 8.5% (1992)

Imports: $13.5 billion (c.i.f., 1995 est.)
commodities: industrial equipment, transportation equipment,
consumer goods, chemicals, paper products
partners: US 36%, EC 18%, Brazil 4%, Venezuela 6.5%, Japan 8.7%
(1992)

External debt: $14 billion (1995 est.)

Economic aid:
r