Economy - overview:
Small, landlocked, and mountainous, Lesotho relies on remittances from miners employed in South Africa and customs duties from the Southern Africa Customs Union for the majority of government revenue, but the government has strengthened its tax system to reduce dependency on customs duties. Completion of a major hydropower facility in January 1998 now permits the sale of water to South Africa, also generating royalties for Lesotho. As the number of mineworkers has declined steadily over the past several years, a small manufacturing base has developed based on farm products that support the milling, canning, leather, and jute industries and a rapidly growing apparel-assembly sector. The economy is still primarily based on subsistence agriculture, especially livestock, although drought has decreased agricultural activity. The extreme inequality in the distribution of income remains a major drawback. Lesotho has signed an Interim Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility with the IMF.
GDP:
purchasing power parity - $5.6 billion (2002 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
4% (2002)
GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $2,700 (2002 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 20%
industry: 46%
services: 34% (2001)
Population below poverty line:
49% (1999)
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 0.9%
highest 10%: 43.4%
Distribution of family income - Gini index:
56 (1986-87)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
10% (2002)
Labor force:
838,000
Labor force - by occupation:
86% of resident population engaged in subsistence agriculture; roughly 35% of the active male wage earners work in South Africa
Unemployment rate:
45% (2002)
Budget:
revenues: $76 million
expenditures: $80 million, including capital expenditures of $15 million (FY99/00 est.)
Industries:
food, beverages, textiles, apparel assembly, handicrafts; construction; tourism
Industrial production growth rate:
15.5% (1999)
Electricity - production:
NA kWh; note - electricity supplied by South Africa (2001)
Electricity - consumption:
40 million kWh (2001)
Electricity - exports:
0 kWh (2001)
Electricity - imports:
40 million kWh; note - electricity supplied by South Africa (2001)
Oil - production:
0 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil - consumption:
1,500 bbl/day (2001)
Oil - exports:
NA (2001)
Oil - imports:
NA (2001)
Agriculture - products:
corn, wheat, pulses, sorghum, barley; livestock
Exports:
$422 million f.o.b. (2002 est.)
Exports - commodities:
manufactures 75% (clothing, footwear, road vehicles), wool and mohair, food and live animals (2000)
Exports - partners:
United States 70%, South African Customs Union 24%, EU 5%; note - data for the South African Customs Union may include goods that are re-exported to third countries (2002 est.)
Imports:
$738 million f.o.b. (2002 est.)
Imports - commodities:
food; building materials, vehicles, machinery, medicines, petroleum products (2000)
Imports - partners:
South African Customs Union 77%, Asia 14%, EU 8%; note - data for imports from the South African Customs Union include goods that are imported from third countries (2002 est.)
Debt - external:
$735 million (2002)
Economic aid - recipient:
$41.5 million (2000)
Currency:
loti (LSL); South African rand (ZAR)
Currency code:
LSL; ZAR
Exchange rates:
maloti per US dollar - 10.5407 (2002), 8.6092 (2001), 6.9398 (2000), 6.1095 (1999), 5.5283 (1998)
Fiscal year:
1 April - 31 March
NOTE: The information regarding Lesotho 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 Lesotho Economy 2003 should be addressed to the CIA.
