Overview: Burma has a mixed economy with about 70% private activity, mainly in agriculture, light industry, and transport, and with about 30% state-controlled activity, mainly in energy, heavy industry, and foreign trade. Government policy in the last five years, 1989-93, has aimed at revitalizing the economy after four decades of tight central planning. Thus, private activity has markedly increased; foreign investment has been encouraged, so far with moderate success; and efforts continue to increase the efficiency of state enterprises. Published estimates of Burma's foreign trade are greatly understated because of the volume of black market trade. A major ongoing problem is the failure to achieve monetary and fiscal stability. Inflation has been running at 25% to 30% annually. Good weather helped boost GDP by perhaps 5% in 1993. Although Burma remains a poor Asian country, its rich resources furnish the potential for substantial long-term increases in income, exports, and living standards.

National product: GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $41 billion (1993 est.)

National product real growth rate: 5% (1993 est.)

National product per capita: $950 (1993 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 30% (1993 est.)

Unemployment rate: NA%

Budget:
revenues: $8.1 billion
expenditures: $11.6 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (1992)

Exports: $613.4 million (FY93)
commodities: pulses and beans, teak, rice, hardwood
partners: Singapore, China, Thailand, India, Hong Kong

Imports: $1.02 billion (FY93)
commodities: machinery, transport equipment, chemicals, food products
partners: Japan, China, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia

External debt: $4 billion (1992)

Industrial production: growth rate 4.9% (FY93 est.); accounts for 10% of GDP

Electricity:
capacity: 1,100,000 kW
production: 2.8 billion kWh
consumption per capita: 65 kWh (1992)

Industries: agricultural processing; textiles and footwear; wood and wood products; petroleum refining; mining of copper, tin, tungsten, iron; construction materials; pharmaceuticals; fertilizer

Agriculture: accounts for 40% of GDP and 66% of employment (including fish and forestry); self-sufficient in food; principal crops - paddy rice, corn, oilseed, sugarcane, pulses; world's largest stand of hardwood trees; rice and timber account for 55% of export revenues

Illicit drugs: world's largest illicit producer of opium (2,575 metric tons in 1993) and minor producer of cannabis for the international drug trade; opium production has doubled since the collapse of Rangoon's antinarcotic programs

Economic aid:
recipient: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $158 million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-89), $3.9 billion; Communist countries (1970-89), $424 million

Currency: 1 kyat (K) = 100 pyas
Exchange rates: kyats (K) per US$1 - 6.2301 (December 1993), 6.1570 (1993), 6.1045 (1992), 6.2837 (1991), 6.3386 (1990), 6.7049 (1989); unofficial - 105

Fiscal year: 1 April - 31 March

NOTE: The information regarding Burma on this page is re-published from the 1995 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Burma Economy 1995 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Burma Economy 1995 should be addressed to the CIA.