Overview: The economy is based on subsistence agriculture, which occupies much of the labor force and contributes about 23% to GDP. Manufacturing, which includes a number of agroprocessing factories, accounts for another 26% of GDP. Mining has declined in importance in recent years; high-grade iron ore deposits were depleted in 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 92% of its imports and to which it sends about 40% of its exports.

GNP: $563 million, per capita $670; real growth rate 5.0% (1990 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 13% (1990)

Unemployment rate: NA%

Budget: revenues $322.9 million; expenditures $325.5 million, including capital expenditures of $NA (FY92 est.)

Exports: $543 million (f.o.b., 1990); commodities--soft drink concentrates, sugar, wood pulp, citrus, canned fruit; partners--South Africa 40% (est.), EC, Canada

Imports: $651 million (f.o.b., 1990); commodities--motor vehicles, machinery, transport equipment, petroleum products, foodstuffs, chemicals; partners--South Africa 92% (est.), Japan, Belgium, UK

External debt: $290 million (1990)

Industrial production: growth rate NA; accounts for 26% of GDP (1989)

Electricity: 50,000 kW capacity; 130 million kWh produced, 170 kWh per capita (1989)

Industries: mining (coal and asbestos), wood pulp, sugar

Agriculture: accounts for 23% of GDP and over 60% of labor force; mostly subsistence agriculture; cash crops--sugarcane, citrus fruit, cotton, pineapples; other crops and livestock--corn, sorghum, peanuts, cattle, goats, sheep; not self-sufficient in grain

Economic aid: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $142 million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-88), $488 million

Currency: lilangeni (plural--emalangeni); 1 lilangeni (E) = 100 cents

Exchange rates: emalangeni (E) per US$1--2.5625 (January 1991), 2.5863 (1990), 2.6166 (1989), 2.2611 (1988), 2.0350 (1987), 2.2685 (1986), 2.1911 (1985); note--the Swazi emalangeni is at par with the South African rand

Fiscal year: 1 April-31 March

NOTE: The information regarding Swaziland 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 Swaziland Economy 1991 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Swaziland Economy 1991 should be addressed to the CIA.