Overview: Niger's economy is centered on subsistence agriculture, animal husbandry, and re-export trade, and increasingly less on uranium, its major export throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Uranium revenues dropped by almost 50% between 1983 and 1990. Terms of trade with Nigeria, Niger's largest regional trade partner, have improved dramatically since the 50% devaluation of the African franc in January 1994; this devaluation boosted exports of livestock, peas, onions, and the products of Niger's small cotton industry. The government relies on bilateral and multilateral aid for operating expenses and public investment, and is strongly induced to adhere to structural adjustment programs designed by the IMF and the World Bank.

National product: GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $5.4 billion (1993 est.)

National product real growth rate: 1.9% (1991 est.)

National product per capita: $650 (1993 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 1.3% (1991 est.)

Unemployment rate: NA%

Budget:
revenues: $193 million
expenditures: $355 million, including capital expenditures of $106 million (1991 est.)

Exports: $294 million (f.o.b., 1991)
commodities: uranium ore 60%, livestock products 20%, cowpeas, onions
partners: France 77%, Nigeria 8%, Cote d'Ivoire, Italy

Imports: $346 million (c.i.f., 1991)
commodities: primary materials, machinery, vehicles and parts, electronic equipment, cereals, petroleum products, pharmaceuticals, chemical products, foodstuffs
partners: Germany 26%, Cote d'Ivoire 11%, France 5%, Italy 4%, Nigeria 2%

External debt: $1.2 billion (December 1991 est.)

Industrial production: growth rate -2.7% (1991 est.); accounts for 13% of GDP

Electricity:
capacity: 105,000 kW
production: 230 million kWh
consumption per capita: 30 kWh (1991)

Industries: cement, brick, textiles, food processing, chemicals, slaughterhouses, and a few other small light industries; uranium mining began in 1971

Agriculture: accounts for roughly 40% of GDP and 90% of labor force; cash crops - cowpeas, cotton, peanuts; food crops - millet, sorghum, cassava, rice; livestock - cattle, sheep, goats; self-sufficient in food except in drought years

Economic aid:
recipient: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $380 million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-89), $3.165 billion; OPEC bilateral aid (1979-89), $504 million; Communist countries (1970-89), $61 million

Currency: 1 CFA franc (CFAF) = 100 centimes
Exchange rates: Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (CFAF) per US$1 - 592.05 (January 1994), 283.16 (1993), 264.69 (1992), 282.11 (1991), 272.26 (1990), 319.01 (1989)
note: the official rate is pegged to the French franc, and beginning 12 January 1994, the CFA franc was devalued to CFAF 100 per French franc from CFAF 50 at which it had been fixed since 1948

Fiscal year: 1 October - 30 September

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