@Swaziland:Economy
Overview: The economy is based on subsistence agriculture, which occupies more than 60% of the population and contributes nearly 25% to GDP. Manufacturing, which includes a number of agroprocessing factories, accounts for another quarter of GDP. Mining has declined in importance in recent years; high-grade iron ore deposits were depleted by 1978, and health concerns cut world demand for asbestos. Exports of sugar and forestry products are the main earners of hard currency. Surrounded by South Africa, except for a short border with Mozambique, Swaziland is heavily dependent on South Africa, from which it receives 90% of its imports and to which it sends about half of its exports. Remittances from Swazi workers in South African mines may supplement domestically produced income by as much as 20%.
National product: GDP - purchasing power parity - $3.3 billion (1994 est.)
National product real growth rate: 4.5% (1994 est.)
National product per capita: $3,490 (1994 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 11.3% (1993 est.)
Unemployment rate: 15% (1992 est.)
Budget:
revenues: $342 million
expenditures: $410 million, including capital expenditures of $130
million (1994 est.)
Exports: $632 million (f.o.b., 1993 est.)
commodities: sugar, edible concentrates, wood pulp, cotton yarn,
asbestos
partners: South Africa 50% (est.), EC countries, Canada
Imports: $734 million (f.o.b., 1993 est.)
commodities: motor vehicles, machinery, transport equipment, petroleum
products, foodstuffs, chemicals
partners: South Africa 90% (est.), Switzerland, UK