ability threatens prospects for economic reconstruction
and repatriation of some 750,000 Liberian refugees who have fled to
neighboring countries. The political impasse between the interim
government and rebel leader Charles TAYLOR has prevented restoration
of normal economic life, including the re-establishment of a strong
central government with effective economic development programs. The
economy deteriorated further in 1994.

National product: GDP - purchasing power parity - $2.3 billion (1994
est.)

National product real growth rate: NA%

National product per capita: $770 (1994 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): NA%

Unemployment rate: NA%

Budget:
revenues: $242.1 million
expenditures: $435.4 million, including capital expenditures of $29.5
million (1989 est.)

Exports: $505 million (f.o.b., 1989 est.)
commodities: iron ore 61%, rubber 20%, timber 11%, coffee
partners: US, EC, Netherlands

Imports: $394 million (c.i.f., 1989 est.)
commodities: mineral fuels, chemicals, machinery, transportation
equipment, rice and other foodstuffs
partners: US, EC, Japan, China, Netherlands, ECOWAS

External debt: $2.1 billion (September 1993 est.)

Industrial production: growth rate NA% (1993-94); much industrial
damage caused by factional warfare

Electricity:
capacity: 330,000 kW
production: 440 million kWh
consumption per capita: 143 kWh (1993)

Industries: rubber processing, food processing, construction
materials, furniture, palm oil processing, mining (iron ore, diamonds)

Agriculture: accounts for about 40% of GDP (including fishing and
forestry); principal products - rubber, timber, coffee, cocoa, rice,
cassava, palm oil, sugarcane, bananas, sheep, goats; not
self-sufficient in food, imports 25% of rice consumption

Illicit drugs: increasingly a transshipment point for heroin and
cocaine

Economic aid:
recipient: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $665 million;
Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments
(1970-89), $870 million; OPEC bilateral aid (1979-89), $25 million;
Communist countries (1970-89), $77 million

Currency: 1 Liberian dollar (L$) = 100 cents

Exchange rates: Liberian dollars (L$) per US$1 - 1.00 (officially
fixed rate since 1940); unofficial parallel exchange rate of US$1 -
L$7 (January 1992), unofficial rate floats against the US dollar

Fiscal year: calendar year

@Liberia:Transportation

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