partners—South Africa, Japan, US, UK, Zimbabwe
_#_External debt: $1.4 billion (December 1990 est.)
_#_Industrial production: growth rate 4.9% (1989 est.); accounts for about 18% of GDP (1988)
_#_Electricity: 181,000 kW capacity; 535 million kWh produced, 60 kWh per capita (1989)
_#_Industries: agricultural processing (tea, tobacco, sugar), sawmilling, cement, consumer goods
_#_Agriculture: accounts for 40% of GDP; cash crops—tobacco, sugarcane, cotton, tea, and corn; subsistence crops—potatoes, cassava, sorghum, pulses; livestock—cattle and goats
_#_Economic aid: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $215 million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-88), $2.0 billion
_#_Currency: Malawian kwacha (plural—kwacha); 1 Malawian kwacha (MK) = 100 tambala
_#_Exchange rates: Malawian kwacha (MK) per US$1—2.6300 (January 1991), 2.7289 (1990), 2.7595 (1989), 2.5613 (1988), 2.2087 (1987), 1.8611 (1986), 1.7191 (1985)
_#_Fiscal year: 1 April-31 March