arge foreign debt and huge
arrears continue to cause difficulties. In 1990 the International
Monetary Fund took the unusual step of declaring Sudan
noncooperative because of its nonpayment of arrears to the Fund.
After Sudan backtracked on promised reforms in 1992-93, the IMF
threatened to expel Sudan from the Fund. To avoid expulsion,
Khartoum agreed to make payments on its arrears to the Fund,
liberalize exchange rates, and reduce subsidies, measures it has
partially implemented. The government's continued prosecution of the
civil war and its growing international isolation continued to
inhibit growth in the nonagricultural sectors of the economy during
1998. Hyperinflation has raised consumer prices above the reach of
most. In 1998, a top priority was to develop potentially lucrative
oilfields in southcentral Sudan; the government is working with
foreign partners to exploit the oil sector.

GDP: purchasing power parity--$31.2 billion (1998 est.)

GDP--real growth rate: 6.1% (1998 est.)

GDP--per capita: purchasing power parity?$930 (1998 est.)

GDP--composition by sector:
agriculture: 33%
industry: 17%
services: 50% (1992 est.)

Population below poverty line: NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: NA%
highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 27% (mid-1997 est.)

Labor force: 11 million (1996 est.)
note: labor shortages for almost all categories of skilled
employment (1983 est.)

Labor force--by occupation: agriculture 80%, industry and commerce
10%, government 6%

Unemployment rate: 30% (FY92/93 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $482 million
expenditures: $1.5 billion, including capital expenditures of $30
million (1996)

Industries: cotton ginning, textiles, cement, edible oils, sugar,
soap distilling, shoes, petroleum refining

Industrial production growth rate: 5% (1996 est.)

Electricity--production: 1.315 billion kWh (1996)

Electricity--production by source:
fossil fuel: 27.76%
hydro: 72.24%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (1996)

Electricity--consumption: 1.315 billion kWh (1996)

Electricity--exports: 0 kWh (1996)

Electricity--imports: 0 kWh (1996)

Agriculture--products: cotton, groundnuts (peanuts), sorghum,
millet, wheat, gum arabic, sesame; sheep

Exports: $594 million (f.o.b., 1997)

Exports--commodities: cotton 23%, sesame 22%, livestock/meat 13%,
gum arabic 5% (1996)

Exports--