any, railroad, electric power company, and oil
company. Hugo BANZER Suarez has tried to further improve the
country's investment climate with an anticorruption campaign. With
the scheduled completion of a $2 billion natural gas pipeline to
Brazil in 1999, Bolivia hopes to become an energy hub in the region.

GDP: purchasing power parity--$23.4 billion (1998 est.)

GDP--real growth rate: 4.7% (1998 est.)

GDP--per capita: purchasing power parity?$3,000 (1998 est.)

GDP--composition by sector:
agriculture: 17%
industry: 26%
services: 57% (1995 est.)

Population below poverty line: 66%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 2.3%
highest 10%: 31.7% (1990)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 4.4% (1998 est.)

Labor force: 2.5 million

Labor force--by occupation: agriculture NA%, services and
utilities NA%, manufacturing, mining and construction NA%

Unemployment rate: 11.4% (1997) with widespread underemployment

Budget:
revenues: $2.7 billion
expenditures: $2.7 billion (1998)

Industries: mining, smelting, petroleum, food and beverages,
tobacco, handicrafts, clothing

Industrial production growth rate: 4% (1995 est.)

Electricity--production: 2.95 billion kWh (1996)

Electricity--production by source:
fossil fuel: 40.68%
hydro: 59.32%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (1996)

Electricity--consumption: 2.948 billion kWh (1996)

Electricity--exports: 2 million kWh (1996)

Electricity--imports: 0 kWh (1996)

Agriculture--products: soybeans, coffee, coca, cotton, corn,
sugarcane, rice, potatoes; timber

Exports: $1.1 billion (f.o.b., 1998 est.)

Exports--commodities: metals 34%, natural gas 9.4%, soybeans 8.4%,
jewelry 11%, wood 6.9%

Exports--partners: US 22%, UK 9.3%, Colombia 8.7%, Peru 7.4%,
Argentina 7.2%

Imports: $1.7 billion (c.i.f. 1998)

Imports--commodities: capital goods 48%, chemicals 11%, petroleum
5%, food 5% (1993 est.)

Imports--partners: US 20%, Japan 13%, Brazil 12, Chile 7.5% (1996)

Debt--external: $4.1 billion (1998)

Economic aid--recipient: $588 million (1997)

Currency: 1 boliviano ($B) = 100 centavos

Exchange rates: bolivianos ($B) per US$1--5.6491 (January 1999),
5.5101 (1998), 5.2543 (1997), 5.0746 (1996), 4.8003 (1995), 4.6205
(1994)

Fiscal year: calendar year

Communications

Telephones: 144,300 (1987 est.)

Telephone system: new subscribers face bureaucratic difficulties;
mo