Overview: The climate, geographic location, and lack of infrastructure and natural resources potential make Chad one of the most underdeveloped countries in the world. Its economy is slowly recovering from the ravaging effects of prolonged civil war, conflict with Libya, drought, and food shortages. In 1986 real GDP returned to its 1977 level, with cotton, the major cash crop, accounting for 43% of exports. Over 80% of the work force is employed in subsistence farming and fishing. Industry is based almost entirely on the processing of agricultural products, including cotton, sugarcane, and cattle. Chad is still highly dependent on foreign aid, with its economy in trouble and many regions suffering from shortages.

GDP: $818 million, per capita $160; real growth rate - 2.0% (1986)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): - 3.0% (1987)

Unemployment rate: NA

Budget: revenues $59.3 million; expenditures $84.7 million, including capital expenditures of NA (1987 est.)

Exports: $98.6 million (f.o.b., 1986); @m5commodities--cotton 43%, cattle 35%, textiles 5%, fish; @m5partners--France, Nigeria, Cameroon

Imports: $206 million (c.i.f., 1986); @m5commodities--machinery and transportation equipment 39%, industrial goods 20%, petroleum products 13%, foodstuffs 9%; @m5partners--US, France

External debt: $255 million (December 1988)

Industrial production: growth rate - 7.0% (1986)

Electricity: 38,000 kW capacity; 69 million kWh produced, 15 kWh per capita (1988)

Industries: cotton textile mills, slaughterhouses, brewery, natron (sodium carbonate)

Agriculture: commercial--cotton, gum arabic, livestock, peanuts, fish; food crops--millet, sorghum, rice, sweet potatoes, yams, cassava, dates

Aid: NA

Currency: Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (plural--francs); 1 CFA franc (CFAF) = 100 centimes

Exchange rates: Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (CFAF) per US$1--312.52 (January 1989), 297.85 (1988), 300.54 (1987), 346.30 (1986), 449.26 (1985)

Fiscal year: calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Chad on this page is re-published from the 1989 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Chad Economy 1989 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Chad Economy 1989 should be addressed to the CIA.