Economy - overview:
Burma is a resource-rich country that suffers from abject rural poverty. The military regime took steps in the early 1990s to liberalize the economy after decades of failure under the "Burmese Way to Socialism", but those efforts have since stalled. Burma has been unable to achieve monetary or fiscal stability, resulting in an economy that suffers from serious macroeconomic imbalances - including a steep inflation rate and an official exchange rate that overvalues the Burmese kyat by more than 100 times the market rate. In addition, most overseas development assistance ceased after the junta suppressed the democracy movement in 1988 and subsequently ignored the results of the 1990 election. Burma is data poor, and official statistics are often dated and inaccurate. Published estimates of Burma's foreign trade are greatly understated because of the size of the black market and border trade - often estimated to be one to two times the official economy.
GDP:
purchasing power parity - $70 billion (2002 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
3.3% (2002 est.)
GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $1,660 (2002 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 60%
industry: 9%
services: 31% (2002 est.)
Population below poverty line:
25% (2000 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 2.8%
highest 10%: 32.4% (1998)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
53.7% (2002 est.)
Labor force:
23.7 million (1999 est.)
Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture 70%, industry 7%, services 23% (2001)
Unemployment rate:
5.1% (2001 est.)
Budget:
revenues: $7.9 billion
expenditures: $12.2 billion, including capital expenditures of $5.7 billion (FY96/97)
Industries:
agricultural processing; knit and woven apparel; wood and wood products; copper, tin, tungsten, iron; construction materials; pharmaceuticals; fertilizer
Industrial production growth rate:
NA%
Electricity - production:
6.139 billion kWh (2001)
Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel: 44.4%
hydro: 55.6%
other: 0% (2001)
nuclear: 0%
Electricity - consumption:
5.709 billion kWh (2001)
Electricity - exports:
0 kWh (2001)
Electricity - imports:
0 kWh (2001)
Oil - production:
14,170 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil - consumption:
38,000 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil - exports:
NA (2001)
Oil - imports:
NA (2001)
Oil - proved reserves:
142.5 million bbl (January 2002 est.)
Natural gas - proved reserves:
314.4 billion cu m (January 2002 est.)
Agriculture - products:
rice, pulses, beans, sesame, groundnuts, sugarcane; hardwood; fish and fish products
Exports:
$2.7 billion f.o.b. (2002)
Exports - commodities:
gas, wood products, pulses, beans, fish, rice
Exports - partners:
Thailand 31.8%, US 13.2%, India 7.4%, China 5.0%, Japan 3.7%
note: official trade statistics do not include trade in illicit goods - such as narcotics, teak, and gems (2002)
Imports:
$2.5 billion f.o.b. (2002)
Imports - commodities:
machinery, transport equipment, construction materials, crude oil; food products
Imports - partners:
China 21.8, Singapore 20.1%, Thailand 12.4%, South Korea 9.7%, Malaysia 7.6%, Taiwan 6.5% (2002)
Debt - external:
$6.1 billion (2002 est.)
Economic aid - recipient:
$99 million (FY98/99)
Currency:
kyat (MMK)
Currency code:
MMK
Exchange rates:
kyats per US dollar - 6.6421 (2002), 6.7489 (2001), 6.5167 (2000), 6.2858 (1999), 6.3432 (1998)
Fiscal year:
1 April - 31 March
NOTE: The information regarding Burma on this page is re-published from the 2003 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Guinea Geography 2003 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Burma Economy 2003 should be addressed to the CIA.
