Overview: Landlocked Malawi ranks among the world's least developed countries. The economy is predominately agricultural, with about 90% of the population living in rural areas. Agriculture accounts for 40% of GDP and 90% of export revenues. After two years of weak performance, economic growth improved significantly in 1988-91 as a result of good weather and a broadly based economic adjustment effort by the government. Drought cut overall output sharply in 1992. The economy depends on substantial inflows of economic assistance from the IMF, the World Bank, and individual donor nations.

National product: GDP - purchasing power equivalent $6 billion (1993 est.)

National product real growth rate: -8% (1992 est.)

National product per capita: $600 (1993 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 21% (1992 est.)

Unemployment rate: NA%

Budget:
revenues: $416 million
expenditures: $498 million, including capital expenditures of $NA (1992 est.)

Exports: $413 million (f.o.b., 1992)
commodities: tobacco, tea, sugar, coffee, peanuts, wood products
partners: US, UK, Zambia, South Africa, Germany

Imports: $737 million (c.i.f., 1992)
commodities: food, petroleum products, semimanufactures, consumer goods, transportation equipment
partners: South Africa, Japan, US, UK, Zimbabwe

External debt: $1.8 billion (December 1991 est.)

Industrial production: growth rate 3.5% (1992 est.); accounts for about 15% of GDP (1992 est.)

Electricity:
capacity: 190,000 kW
production: 620 million kWh
consumption per capita: 65 kWh (1992)

Industries: agricultural processing (tea, tobacco, sugar), sawmilling, cement, consumer goods

Agriculture: accounts for 40% of GDP; cash crops - tobacco, sugarcane, cotton, tea, and corn; subsistence crops - potatoes, cassava, sorghum, pulses; livestock - cattle, goats

Economic aid:
recipient: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $215 million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-89), $2.15 billion

Currency: 1 Malawian kwacha (MK) = 100 tambala
Exchange rates: Malawian kwacha (MK) per US$1 - 4.4598 (November 1993), 3.6033 (1992), 2.8033 (1991), 2.7289 (1990), 2.7595 (1989)

Fiscal year: 1 April - 31 March

NOTE: The information regarding Malawi 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 Malawi Economy 1995 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Malawi Economy 1995 should be addressed to the CIA.