est.)

Unemployment rate: 20% (1997 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $1.39 billion
expenditures: $1.47 billion, including capital expenditures of $370
million (1996 est.)

Industries: mining, lumbering, light manufacturing, aluminum
smelting, food processing

Industrial production growth rate: 4.2% (1996 est.)

Electricity--production: 6.1 billion kWh (1996)

Electricity--production by source:
fossil fuel: 0.66%
hydro: 99.34%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (1996)

Electricity--consumption: 5.88 billion kWh (1996)

Electricity--exports: 225 million kWh (1996)

Electricity--imports: 5 million kWh (1996)

Agriculture--products: cocoa, rice, coffee, cassava (tapioca),
peanuts, corn, shea nuts, bananas; timber

Exports: $1.5 billion (f.o.b., 1997)

Exports--commodities: gold 39%, cocoa 35%, timber 9.4%, tuna,
bauxite, aluminum, manganese ore, and diamonds (1996 est.)

Exports--partners: UK, Germany, US, Netherlands, Japan, Nigeria

Imports: $2.1 billion (f.o.b., 1997)

Imports--commodities: capital equipment, petroleum, consumer
goods, foods, intermediate goods

Imports--partners: UK, Nigeria, US, Germany, Japan, Netherlands

Debt--external: $5.2 billion (1996 est.)

Economic aid--recipient: $477.3 million (1995)

Currency: 1 new cedi (C) = 100 pesewas

Exchange rates: new cedis per US$1--2,324.70 (September 1998),
2,050.17 (1997), 1,637.23 (1996), 1,200.43 (1995), 956.71 (1994)

Fiscal year: calendar year

Communications

Telephones: 100,000 (1997 est.)

Telephone system: poor to fair system
domestic: primarily microwave radio relay
international: satellite earth station--1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations: AM 4, FM 23, shortwave 0 (1997)

Radios: 12.5 million (1997 est.)

Television broadcast stations: 7 (in addition, there are eight
repeaters) (1997)

Televisions: 1.9 million (1997 est.)

Transportation

Railways:
total: 953 km (undergoing major rehabilitation)
narrow gauge: 953 km 1.067-m gauge (32 km double track) (1997 est.)

Highways:
total: 39,409 km
paved: 11,653 km (including 30 km of expressways)
unpaved: 27,756 km (1997 est.)

Waterways: Volta, Ankobra, and Tano Rivers provide 168 km of
perennial navigation for launches and lighters; Lake Volta provides
1,125 km of arterial and feeder waterways

Pipelines: 0 km

Ports and harbors: Takoradi, Tema

Merchant marine:
total: 5 ships (1,000 GRT or ov