re 31%,
industry 15% (1995 est.)

Unemployment rate: 14%; underemployment 36% (1997 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $389 million
expenditures: $551 million, including capital expenditures of $NA
(1996 est.)

Industries: food processing, chemicals, metal products, textiles,
clothing, petroleum refining and distribution, beverages, footwear

Industrial production growth rate: 1.4% (1994 est.)

Electricity--production: 1.665 billion kWh (1996)

Electricity--production by source:
fossil fuel: 48.95%
hydro: 21.02%
nuclear: 0%
other: 30.03% (1996)

Electricity--consumption: 1.665 billion kWh (1996)

Electricity--exports: 0 kWh (1996)

Electricity--imports: 0 kWh (1996)

Agriculture--products: coffee, bananas, sugarcane, cotton, rice,
corn, cassava (tapioca), citrus, beans; beef, veal, pork, poultry,
dairy products

Exports: $704 million (f.o.b., 1997)

Exports--commodities: coffee, seafood, meat, sugar, gold, bananas

Exports--partners: US, Central America, Germany, Canada

Imports: $1.45 billion (c.i.f., 1997)

Imports--commodities: consumer goods, machinery and equipment,
petroleum products

Imports--partners: Central America, US, Venezuela, Japan

Debt--external: $6 billion (1996 est.)

Economic aid--recipient: $839.9 million (1995)

Currency: 1 gold cordoba (C$) = 100 centavos

Exchange rates: gold cordobas (C$) per US$1--11.14 (December
1998), 10.58 (1998), 9.45 (1997), 8.44 (1996), 7.55 (1995), 6.72
(1994)

Fiscal year: calendar year

Communications

Telephones: 66,810 (1993 est.)

Telephone system: low-capacity microwave radio relay and wire
system being expanded; connected to Central American Microwave System
domestic: wire and microwave radio relay
international: satellite earth stations--1 Intersputnik (Atlantic
Ocean region) and 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations: AM 45, FM 0, shortwave 3

Radios: 1.037 million (1992 est.)

Television broadcast stations: 3 (in addition, there are seven
low-power repeaters) (1997)

Televisions: 260,000 (1992 est.)

Transportation

Highways:
total: 16,382 km
paved: 1,818 km
unpaved: 14,564 km (1998 est.)

Waterways: 2,220 km, including 2 large lakes

Pipelines: crude oil 56 km

Ports and harbors: Bluefields, Corinto, El Bluff, Puerto Cabezas,
Puerto Sandino, Rama, San Juan del Sur

Merchant marine: none

Airports: 184 (1998 est.)

Airports--with paved ru