Overview: The economy consists primarily of subsistence agriculture and fishing. The government is the major employer of the work force, relying heavily on financial assistance from the US. The compact of "free association" with the United States, entered into after the end of the UN trusteeship on 1 October 1994, provides Palau with $500 million in US aid over 15 years in return for furnishing some military facilities. The population, in effect, enjoys a per capita income of $5,000, twice that of the Philippines and much of Micronesia. Long-run prospects for the tourist sector have been greatly bolstered by the expansion of air travel in the Pacific and the rapidly rising prosperity of leading East Asian countries.
National product: GDP - purchasing power parity - $81.8 million (1994
est.)
note: GDP numbers reflect US spending
National product real growth rate: NA%
National product per capita: $5,000 (1994 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices): NA%
Unemployment rate: 20% (1986)
Budget: revenues: $6 million expenditures: $NA, including capital expenditures of $NA (1986 est.)
Exports: $600,000 (f.o.b., 1989)
commodities: trochus (type of shellfish), tuna, copra, handicrafts
partners: US, Japan
Imports: $24.6 million (c.i.f., 1989) commodities: NA partners: US
External debt: about $100 million (1989)