ation below poverty line: 46.1% (1993 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 4.2%
highest 10%: 26.4% (1992)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 112% (1998 est.)

Labor force: 1 million-1.5 million

Labor force--by occupation: agriculture 80% (1997 est.)

Unemployment rate: 5.7% (1997 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $230.2 million
expenditures: $365.9 million, including capital expenditures of $317
million (1996)

Industries: tin and gypsum mining, timber, electric power,
agricultural processing, construction, garments

Industrial production growth rate: 8.9% (1998 est.)

Electricity--production: 900 million kWh (1996)

Electricity--production by source:
fossil fuel: 0.04%
hydro: 99.96%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (1998)

Electricity--consumption: 287 million kWh (1996)

Electricity--exports: 640 million kWh (1996)

Electricity--imports: 27 million kWh (1996)

Agriculture--products: sweet potatoes, vegetables, corn, coffee,
sugarcane, tobacco, cotton; water buffalo, pigs, cattle, poultry

Exports: $330 million (f.o.b., 1998)

Exports--commodities: wood products, garments, electricity,
coffee, tin

Exports--partners: Vietnam, Thailand, Germany, France

Imports: $630 million (c.i.f., 1998)

Imports--commodities: machinery and equipment, vehicles, fuel

Imports--partners: Thailand, Japan, Vietnam, China, Singapore

Debt--external: $1.2 billion (1996)

Economic aid--recipient: $290 million (1998)

Currency: 1 new kip (NK) = 100 at

Exchange rates: new kips (NK) per US$1--4,217 (January 1999),
3,299.21 (1998), 1,256.73 (1997), 921.14 (1996), 804.69 (1995),
717.67 (1994)
note: as of September 1995, a floating exchange rate policy was
adopted

Fiscal year: 1 October--30 September

Communications

Telephones: 28,000 (1998 est.)

Telephone system: service to general public is poor but
improving, with over 28,000 telephones currently in service and an
additional 48,000 expected by 2001; the government relies on a
radiotelephone network to communicate with remote areas
domestic: radiotelephone communications
international: satellite earth station--1 Intersputnik (Indian Ocean
Region)

Radio broadcast stations: AM 9, FM 5, shortwave 4 (1998)

Radios: 580,000 (1995)

Television broadcast stations: 4 (1997)

Televisions: 32,000 (1993 est.)

Transportation

Railways: 0 km

Highways:
total: 21,716 km