s hope this will prove more successful, yet
government mismanagement and corruption remain problems. Inflation
has been brought back under control. Progress toward privatization
of remaining state industry may support economic growth in 1999-2000.

GDP: purchasing power parity--$29.6 billion (1998 est.)

GDP--real growth rate: 5% (1998 est.)

GDP--per capita: purchasing power parity?$2,000 (1998 est.)

GDP--composition by sector:
agriculture: 42%
industry: 22%
services: 36% (1997 est.)

Population below poverty line: 40% (1984 est.)

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

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 2.5% (1998 est.)

Labor force: NA

Unemployment rate: 30% (1998 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $2.23 billion
expenditures: $2.23 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA
(FY96/97 est.)

Industries: petroleum production and refining, food processing,
light consumer goods, textiles, lumber

Industrial production growth rate: NA%

Electricity--production: 2.73 billion kWh (1996)

Electricity--production by source:
fossil fuel: 2.93%
hydro: 97.07%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (1996)

Electricity--consumption: 2.73 billion kWh (1996)

Electricity--exports: 0 kWh (1996)

Electricity--imports: 0 kWh (1996)

Agriculture--products: coffee, cocoa, cotton, rubber, bananas,
oilseed, grains, root starches; livestock; timber

Exports: $1.6 billion (f.o.b., 1998)

Exports--commodities: crude oil and petroleum products, lumber,
cocoa beans, aluminum, coffee, cotton

Exports--partners: Italy 25%, Spain 20%, France 16%, Netherlands
7% (1997 est.)

Imports: $1.3 billion (f.o.b., 1998)

Imports--commodities: machines and electrical equipment, transport
equipment, fuel, food

Imports--partners: France 25%, Nigeria 8%, US 8%, Germany 6% (1997
est.)

Debt--external: $8.7 billion (1998 est.)

Economic aid--recipient: $606.1 million (1995); note?France signed
two loan agreements totaling $55 million in September 1997, and the
Paris Club agreed in October 1997 to reduce the official debt by 50%
and to reschedule it on favorable terms with a consolidation of
payments due through 2000

Currency: 1 Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (CFAF) = 100
centimes

Exchange rates: Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (CFAF) per
US$1--575 (January 1999), 589.95 (1998), 583.67 (1997), 511.55
(1996), 499.15 (1995)