ural economy into one
primarily industrial and urban. In the 1980s, Canada registered one of
the highest rates of real growth among the OECD nations, averaging
about 3.2%. With its great natural resources, skilled labor force, and
modern capital plant, Canada has excellent economic prospects,
although the country still faces high unemployment and a growing debt.
Moreover, the continuing constitutional impasse between English- and
French-speaking areas has observers discussing a possible split in the
confederation; foreign investors have become edgy.

National product: GDP - purchasing power parity - $639.8 billion (1994
est.)

National product real growth rate: 4.5% (1994)

National product per capita: $22,760 (1994)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 0.2% (1994)

Unemployment rate: 9.6% (December 1994)

Budget:
revenues: $85 billion (Federal)
expenditures: $115.3 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA
(FY93/94 est.)

Exports: $164.3 billion (f.o.b., 1994 est.)
commodities: newsprint, wood pulp, timber, crude petroleum, machinery,
natural gas, aluminum, motor vehicles and parts; telecommunications
equipment
partners: US, Japan, UK, Germany, South Korea, Netherlands, China

Imports: $151.5 billion (c.i.f., 1994 est.)
commodities: crude oil, chemicals, motor vehicles and parts, durable
consumer goods, electronic computers; telecommunications equipment and
parts
partners: US, Japan, UK, Germany, France, Mexico, Taiwan, South Korea

External debt: $243 billion (1993)

Industrial production: growth rate 4.8% (1993)

Electricity:
capacity: 108,090,000 kW
production: 511 billion kWh
consumption per capita: 16,133 kWh (1993)

Industries: processed and unprocessed minerals, food products, wood
and paper products, transportation equipment, chemicals, fish
products, petroleum and natural gas

Agriculture: accounts for about 3% of GDP; one of the world's major
producers and exporters of grain (wheat and barley); key source of US
agricultural imports; large forest resources cover 35% of total land
area; commercial fisheries provide annual catch of 1.5 million metric
tons, of which 75% is exported

Illicit drugs: illicit producer of cannabis for the domestic drug
market; use of hydroponics technology permits growers to plant large
quantities of high-quality marijuana indoors; growing role as a
transit point for heroin and cocaine entering the US market

E