Overview: The agricultural sector accounts for about 20% of GDP and provides employment for about 75% of the labor force. About 40% of the total cultivated land is used to grow peanuts, an important export crop. The principal economic resource is fishing, which brought in about $200 million or about 25% of total foreign exchange earnings in 1987. Mining is dominated by the extraction of phosphate, but production has faltered because of reduced worldwide demand for fertilizers in recent years. Over the past 10 years tourism has become increasingly important to the economy.

GDP: $4.6 billion, per capita $615; real growth rate 0.6% (1989)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 0.4% (1989 est.)

Unemployment rate: 3.5% (1987)

Budget: revenues $921 million; expenditures $1,024 million; including capital expenditures of $14 million (FY89 est.)

Exports: $801 million (f.o.b., 1989 est.); commodities--manufactures 30%, fish products 27%, peanuts 11%, petroleum products 11%, phosphates 10%; partners--US, France, other EC, Ivory Coast, India

Imports: $1.0 billion (c.i.f., 1989 est.); commodities--semimanufactures 30%, food 27%, durable consumer goods 17%, petroleum 12%, capital goods 14%; partners--US, France, other EC, Nigeria, Algeria, China, Japan

External debt: $4.1 billion (1989)

Industrial production: growth rate 4.7% (1989); accounts for 17% of GDP

Electricity: 210,000 kW capacity; 760 million kWh produced, 100 kWh per capita (1989)

Industries: fishing, agricultural processing, phosphate mining, petroleum refining, building materials

Agriculture: including fishing, accounts for 20% of GDP and more than 75% of labor force; major products--peanuts (cash crop), millet, corn, sorghum, rice, cotton, tomatoes, green vegetables; estimated two-thirds self-sufficient in food; fish catch of 299,000 metric tons in 1987

Economic aid: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $551 million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-88), $4.8 billion; OPEC bilateral aid (1979-89), $589 million; Communist countries (1970-89), $295 million

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

Exchange rates: Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (CFAF) per US$1--256.54 (January 1991), 272.26 (1990), 319.01 (1989), 297.85 (1988), 300.54 (1987), 346.30 (1986), 449.26 (1985)

Fiscal year: 1 July-30 June

NOTE: The information regarding Senegal on this page is re-published from the 1991 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Senegal Economy 1991 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Senegal Economy 1991 should be addressed to the CIA.