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Swaziland Economy 1996
The economy is based on subsistence agriculture, which occupies more than
60% of the population and contributes nearly 25% to GDP. Manufacturing,
which includes a number of agroprocessing factories, accounts for another
quarter of GDP. Mining has declined in importance in recent years;
high-grade iron ore deposits were depleted by 1978, and health concerns cut
world demand for asbestos. Exports of sugar and forestry products are the
main earners of hard currency. Surrounded by South Africa, except for a
short border with Mozambique, Swaziland is heavily dependent on South
Africa, from which it receives 90% of its imports and to which it sends
about half of its exports. Remittances from Swazi workers in South African
mines may supplement domestically produced income by as much as 20%.
GDP - purchasing power parity - $3.3 billion (1994 est.)
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National product real growth rate:
-
National product per capita:
-
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
$410 million, including capital expenditures of $130 million (1994 est.)
$632 million (f.o.b., 1993 est.)
sugar, edible concentrates, wood pulp, cotton yarn, asbestos
South Africa 50% (est.), EC countries, Canada
$734 million (f.o.b., 1993 est.)
motor vehicles, machinery, transport equipment, petroleum products,
foodstuffs, chemicals
South Africa 90% (est.), Switzerland, UK
growth rate 4.2% (1993 est.)
mining (coal and asbestos), wood pulp, sugar
accounts for over 60% of labor force; mostly subsistence agriculture; cash
crops - sugarcane, cotton, maize, tobacco, rice, citrus fruit, pineapples;
other crops and livestock - corn, sorghum, peanuts, cattle, goats, sheep;
not self-sufficient in grain
bilateral aid (1991) $35 million of which US disbursements $12 million, UK
disbursements $6 million, and Denmark $2 million; multilateral aid (1991)
$24 million of which EC disbursements $8 million
1 lilangeni (E) = 100 cents
emalangeni (E) per US$1 -3.5389 (January 1995), 3.5490 (1994), 3.2636
(1993), 2.8497 (1992), 2.7563 (1991), 2.5863 (1990); note - the Swazi
emalangeni is at par with the South African rand
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