Economy - overview:
Burundi is a landlocked, resource-poor country with an underdeveloped manufacturing sector. The economy is predominantly agricultural with roughly 90% of the population dependent on subsistence agriculture. Economic growth depends on coffee and tea exports, which account for 90% of foreign exchange earnings. The ability to pay for imports, therefore, rests primarily on weather conditions and international coffee and tea prices. The Tutsi minority, 14% of the population, dominates the government and the coffee trade at the expense of the Hutu majority, 85% of the population. Since October 1993 an ethnic-based war has resulted in the death of over 200,000 persons, sent 800,000 refugees into Tanzania, and displaced 525,000 others internally. Doubts about the prospects for sustainable peace continue to impede development. Only one in two children go to school, and approximately one in ten adults has HIV/AIDS. Food, medicine, and electricity remain in short supply.
GDP:
purchasing power parity - $3.8 billion (2002 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
2.1% (2002 est.)
GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $600 (2002 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 50%
industry: 19%
services: 31% (2002 est.)
Population below poverty line:
70% (2002 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 1.8%
highest 10%: 32.9% (1998)
Distribution of family income - Gini index:
42.5 (1998)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
12% (2002 est.)
Labor force:
3.7 million (2000)
Labor force - by occupation:
NA
Unemployment rate:
NA%
Budget:
revenues: $125 million
expenditures: $176 million, including capital expenditures of $NA (2000 est.)
Industries:
light consumer goods such as blankets, shoes, soap; assembly of imported components; public works construction; food processing
Industrial production growth rate:
18% (2001)
Electricity - production:
155.4 million kWh (2001)
Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel: 0.6%
hydro: 99.4%
other: 0% (2001)
nuclear: 0%
Electricity - consumption:
177.5 million kWh (2001)
Electricity - exports:
0 kWh (2001)
Electricity - imports:
33 million kWh; note - supplied by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2001)
Oil - production:
0 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil - consumption:
2,750 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil - exports:
NA (2001)
Oil - imports:
NA (2001)
Agriculture - products:
coffee, cotton, tea, corn, sorghum, sweet potatoes, bananas, manioc (tapioca); beef, milk, hides
Exports:
$26 million f.o.b. (2002 est.)
Exports - commodities:
coffee, tea, sugar, cotton, hides
Exports - partners:
EU 45%, Switzerland 32.6%, Kenya 17.4%, US 6% (2001 est.)
Imports:
$135 million f.o.b. (2002 est.)
Imports - commodities:
capital goods, petroleum products, foodstuffs
Imports - partners:
EU 39%, Tanzania 9.5%, Kenya 6.2%, US 4% (2001)
Debt - external:
$1.14 billion (2001)
Economic aid - recipient:
$92.7 million (2000)
Currency:
Burundi franc (BIF)
Currency code:
BIF
Exchange rates:
Burundi francs per US dollar - NA (2002), 830.353 (2001), 720.673 (2000), 563.562 (1999), 447.766 (1998)
Fiscal year:
calendar year
NOTE: The information regarding Burundi 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 Burundi Economy 2003 should be addressed to the CIA.
