rity - $2.9 billion (1998 est.)

GDP - real growth rate: 4.4% (1998 est.)

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $11,200 (1998 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 4.9%
industry: 15.6%
services: 79.5% (1997)

Population below poverty line: NA%

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

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 1.7% (1998)

Labor force: 136,000 (1998 est.)

Labor force - by occupation: services 75%, industry 15%, agriculture
10% (1996 est.)

Unemployment rate: 12% (1998 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $725.5 million
expenditures: $750.6 million, including capital expenditures of $126.3
million (FY97/98 est.)

Industries: tourism, sugar, light manufacturing, component assembly
for export

Industrial production growth rate: 0.8% (1996)

Electricity - production: 672 million kWh (1998)

Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel: 100%
hydro: 0%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (1998)

Electricity - consumption: 625 million kWh (1998)

Electricity - exports: 0 kWh (1998)

Electricity - imports: 0 kWh (1998)

Agriculture - products: sugarcane, vegetables, cotton

Exports: $211.2 million (1998)

Exports - commodities: sugar and molasses, rum, other foods and
beverages, chemicals, electrical components, clothing

Exports - partners: UK 14.8%, US 11.6%, Trinidad and Tobago 7.6%,
Venezuela 6.1%, Jamaica 5.8% (1998)

Imports: $1.01 billion (1998)

Imports - commodities: consumer goods, machinery, foodstuffs,
construction materials, chemicals, fuel, electrical components

Imports - partners: US 30.7%, Trinidad and Tobago 10.2%, Japan 8.3%,
UK 7.7%, Canada 2.2% (1998)

Debt - external: $550 million (1998 est.)

Economic aid - recipient: $9.1 million (1995)

Currency: 1 Barbadian dollar (Bds$) = 100 cents

Exchange rates: Barbadian dollars (Bds$) per US$1 - 2.0000 (fixed rate
pegged to the US dollar)

Fiscal year: 1 April - 31 March

@Barbados:Communications

Telephones - main lines in use: 90,000 (1995)

Telephones - mobile cellular: 4,614 (1995)

Telephone system:
domestic: island-wide automatic telephone system
international: satellite earth stations - 4 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean);
tropospheric scatter to Trinidad and Saint Lucia

Radio broadcast stations: AM 2, FM 3, shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios: 237,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations: 1 (plus two cable channels) (1997)

Televisions: 76,000 (1997)

Internet