ustrial production growth rate: 14% (1998 est.)
note: the gold industry spurted in 1998 giving industry as a whole a
boost on a small base while the rest of the economy, including
agriculture, lagged

Electricity--production: 13.49 billion kWh (1996)

Electricity--production by source:
fossil fuel: 9.56%
hydro: 90.44%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (1996)

Electricity--consumption: 10.92 billion kWh (1996)

Electricity--exports: 6.32 billion kWh (1996)

Electricity--imports: 3.75 billion kWh (1996)

Agriculture--products: tobacco, cotton, potatoes, vegetables,
grapes, fruits and berries; sheep, goats, cattle, wool

Exports: $630 million (1998 est.)

Exports--commodities: cotton, wool, meat, tobacco; gold, mercury,
uranium, hydropower; machinery; shoes

Exports--partners: China, UK, FSU

Imports: $670 million (1998 est.)

Imports--commodities: grain, lumber, industrial products, ferrous
metals, fuel, machinery, textiles, footwear

Imports--partners: Turkey, Cuba, US, Germany

Debt--external: $935 million (1997 est.)

Economic aid--recipient: $329.4 million (1995)

Currency: 1 Kyrgyzstani som (KGS) = 100 tyiyn

Exchange rates: soms (KGS) per US$1--30.25 (February 1999), 20.838
(1998), 17.362 (1997), 12.810 (1996), 10.822 (1995), 10.842 (1994)

Fiscal year: calendar year

Communications

Telephones: 356,000 (1996 est.)

Telephone system: poorly developed; about 100,000 unsatisfied
applications for household telephones
domestic: principally microwave radio relay; one cellular provider,
probably only limited to Bishkek region
international: connections with other CIS countries by landline or
microwave radio relay and with other countries by leased connections
with Moscow international gateway switch and by satellite; satellite
earth stations--1 Intersputnik and 1 Intelsat; connected
internationally by the Trans-Asia-Europe Fiber-Optic Line

Radio broadcast stations: AM NA, FM NA, shortwave NA; note--one
state-run radio broadcast station

Radios: 825,000 (radio receiver systems with multiple speakers
for program diffusion 748,000)

Television broadcast stations: NA (repeater stations throughout
the country relay programs from Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and
Turkey) (1997)

Televisions: 875,000

Transportation

Railways:
total: 370 km in common carrier service; does not include industrial
lines
broad gauge: 370 km 1.520-m ga