ecommunications. Electricity is
available in only a few urban areas. Subsistence agriculture accounts
for half of GDP and provides 80% of total employment. The predominant
crop is glutinous rice. In non-drought years, Laos is self-sufficient
overall in food, but each year flood, pests, and localized drought
cause shortages in various parts of the country. For the foreseeable
future the economy will continue to depend on aid from the IMF and
other international sources; Japan is currently the largest bilateral
aid donor; aid from the former USSR/Eastern Europe has been cut
sharply. As in many developing countries, deforestation and soil
erosion will hamper efforts to regain a high rate of GDP growth.

GDP: purchasing power parity-$5.9 billion (1997 est.)

GDP-real growth rate: 1.5% (1997 est.)

GDP-per capita: purchasing power parity-$1,150 (1997 est.)

GDP-composition by sector:
agriculture: 56%
industry: 19%
services: 25% (1997 est.)

Inflation rate-consumer price index: 16% (1997 est.)

Labor force: 1 million-1.5 million
by occupation: agriculture 80% (1997 est.)

Unemployment rate: 1.7% overall; 4.5% in urban areas (1995 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $230.2 million
expenditures: $365.9 million, including capital expenditures of $317
million (1996)

Industries: tin and gypsum mining, timber, electric power,
agricultural processing, construction, garments

Industrial production growth rate: NA%

Electricity-capacity: 217,000 kW (1997)

Electricity-production: 1.2 billion kWh (1996)

Electricity-consumption per capita: 60 kWh (1995)

Agriculture-products: sweet potatoes, vegetables, corn, coffee,
sugarcane, cotton; water buffalo, pigs, cattle, poultry; tobacco

Exports:
total value: $313.1 million (f.o.b., 1996)
commodities: wood products, garments, electricity, coffee, tin
partners: Vietnam, Thailand, Germany, France

Imports:
total value: $678 million (c.i.f., 1996)
commodities: machinery and equipment, vehicles, fuel
partners: Thailand, Japan, Vietnam, China, Singapore

Debt-external: $1.2 billion (1996)

Economic aid:
recipient: ODA, $212.2 million

Currency: 1 new kip (NK) = 100 at

Exchange rates: new kips (NK) per US$1-2,500 (January 1998), 1,256.73
(1997), 921.14 (1996), 804.69 (1995), 717.67 (1994), 716.25 (1993)
note: as of September 1995, a floating exchange rate policy was
adopted

Fiscal year: 1 October-30 September

Communications

Telephones: 19,333 (1996)

Telephone sys