troubled. Oil reserves currently
being exploited will be depleted in the early 1990s, so ways must be
found to boost agricultural and industrial exports in the medium term.
The Sixth Cameroon Development Plan (1986-91) stresses balanced
development and designates agriculture as the basis of the country's
economic future.

_#_GDP: $11.5 billion, per capita $1,040; real growth rate 0.7%
(1990 est.)

_#_Inflation rate (consumer prices): 8.6% (FY88)

_#_Unemployment rate: 25% (1990 est.)

_#_Budget: revenues $1.7 billion; expenditures $2.2 billion,
including capital expenditures of $NA million (FY89)

_#_Exports: $2.1 billion (f.o.b., 1990 est.);

commodities--petroleum products 56%, coffee, cocoa, timber,
manufactures;

partners--EC (particularly the French) about 50%, US 10%

_#_Imports: $2.1 billion (c.i.f., 1990 est.);

commodities--machines and electrical equipment, transport equipment,
chemical products, consumer goods;

partners--France 41%, Germany 9%, US 4%

_#_External debt: $4.9 billion (December 1989 est.)

_#_Industrial production: growth rate - 6.4% (FY87); accounts
for 30% of GDP

_#_Electricity: 752,000 kW capacity; 2,940 million kWh produced,
270 kWh per capita (1989)

_#_Industries: crude oil products, food processing, light consumer
goods industries textiles, sawmills

_#_Agriculture: the agriculture and forestry sectors provide
employment for the majority of the population, contributing nearly 25%
to GDP and providing a high degree of self-sufficiency in staple foods;
commercial and food crops include coffee, cocoa, timber, cotton, rubber,
bananas, oilseed, grains, livestock, root starches

_#_Economic aid: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $440
million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments
(1970-88), $4.2 billion; OPEC bilateral aid (1979-89), $29 million;
Communist countries (1970-89), $125 million

_#_Currency: Communaute Financiere Africaine franc
(plural--francs); 1 CFA franc (CFAF) = 100 centimes

_#_Exchange rates: Communaute Financiere Africaine francs
(CFAF) per US$1--256.54 (January 1991), 272.26 (1990), 319.01 (1989),
297.85 (1988), 300.54 (1987), 346.30 (1986), 449.26 (1985)

_#_Fiscal year: 1 July-30 June

_*_Communications
_#_Railroads: 1,003 km total; 858 km 1.000-meter gauge, 145 km
0.600-meter gauge

_#_Highways: about 65,000 km total; includes 2,682 km bituminous,
30,000 km unimproved earth