rtation system, and a weak human resource
base. Multilateral and bilateral development assistance, particularly from
France, plays a major role in providing capital for new investment.
National product:
GDP - exchange rate conversion - $1.3 billion (1990 est.)
National product real growth rate:
-3% (1990 est.)
National product per capita:
$440 (1990 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
-3% (1990 est.)
Unemployment rate:
30% (1988 est.) in Bangui
Budget:
revenues $175 million; expenditures $312 million, including capital
expenditures of $122 million (1991 est.)
Exports:
$138 million (1991 est.)
commodities:
diamonds, cotton, coffee, timber, tobacco
partners:
France, Belgium, Italy, Japan, US
Imports:
$205 million (1991 est.)
commodities:
food, textiles, petroleum products, machinery, electrical equipment, motor
vehicles, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, consumer goods, industrial products
partners:
France, other EC countries, Japan, Algeria
External debt:
$859 million (1991)
Industrial production:
growth rate 4% (1990 est.); accounts for 14% of GDP
Electricity:
40,000 kW capacity; 95 million kWh produced, 30 kWh per capita (1991)
Industries:
diamond mining, sawmills, breweries, textiles, footwear, assembly of
bicycles and motorcycles
Agriculture:
accounts for 40% of GDP; self-sufficient in food production except for
grain; commercial crops - cotton, coffee, tobacco, timber; food crops -
manioc, yams, millet, corn, bananas
Economic aid:
US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-90), $52 million; Western (non-US)
countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-90), $1.6 billion; OPEC
bilateral aid (1979-89), $6 million; Communist countries (1970-89), $38
million
Currency:
1 CFA franc (CFAF) = 100 centimes
Exchange rates:
Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (CFAF) per US$1 - 274.06 (January
1993), 264.69 (1992), 282.11 (1991), 272.26 (1990), 319.01 (1989), 297.85
(1988)

*Central African Republic, Economy

Fiscal year:
calendar year

*Central African Republic, Communications

Highways:
22,000 km total; 458 km bituminous, 10,542 km improved earth, 11,000
unimproved earth
Inland waterways:
800 km; traditional trade carried on by means of shallow-draft dugouts;
Oubangui is the most important river
Airports:
total:
66
usable:
51
with permanent-surface runways:
3
with runways over 3,659 m:
0
with runw