Electricity: 355,000,000 kW capacity; 1,790,000 million kWh produced, 6,150 kWh per capita (1989)
Industries: diversified, highly developed capital goods and defense industries; consumer goods industries comparatively less developed
Agriculture: accounts for roughly 20% of GNP and labor force; production based on large collective and state farms; inefficiently managed; wide range of temperate crops and livestock produced; world's second-largest grain producer after the US; shortages of grain, oilseeds, and meat; world's leading producer of sawnwood and roundwood; annual fish catch among the world's largest—11.2 million metric tons (1987)
Illicit drugs: illegal producer of cannabis and opium poppy, mostly for domestic consumption; government has begun eradication program to control cultivation; used as a transshipment country
Aid: donor—extended to non-Communist less developed countries (1954-88), $47.4 billion; extended to other Communist countries (1954-88), $147.6 billion
Currency: ruble (plural—rubles); 1 ruble (R) = 100 kopeks
Exchange rates: rubles (R) per US$1—0.600 (February 1990), 0.629 (1989), 0.629 (1988), 0.633 (1987), 0.704 (1986), 0.838 (1985); note—the exchange rate is administratively set and should not be used indiscriminately to convert domestic rubles to dollars; on 1 November 1989 the USSR began using a rate of 6.26 rubles to the dollar for Western tourists buying rubles and for Soviets traveling abroad, but retained the official exchange rate for most trade transactions
Fiscal year: calendar year
- Communications Railroads: 146,100 km total; 51,700 km electrified; does not include industrial lines (1987)
Highways: 1,609,900 km total; 1,196,000 km hard-surfaced (asphalt, concrete, stone block, asphalt treated, gravel, crushed stone); 413,900 km earth (1987)