Overview: Agriculture employs more than half of the labor force, contributes 50% to GDP, and furnishes 90% of exports. The bulk of export earnings comes from the sale of coconut oil and copra. The economy depends on emigrant remittances and foreign aid to support a level of imports much greater than export earnings. Tourism has become the most important growth industry. The economy continued to falter in 1994, as remittances and tourist earnings remained low. Production of taro, the primary food export crop, has dropped 97% since a fungal disease struck the crop in 1993. The rapid growth in 1994 of the giant African snail population in Western Samoa is also threatening the country's basic food crops, such as bananas and coconuts.
National product: GDP - purchasing power parity - $400 million (1992 est.)
National product real growth rate: -4.3% (1992 est.)
National product per capita: $2,000 (1992 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 14% (1994 est.)
Unemployment rate: NA%
Budget:
revenues: $95.3 million
expenditures: $76.7 million, including capital expenditures of $NA
(1994 est.)
Exports: $6.4 million (f.o.b., 1993)
commodities: coconut oil and cream, taro, copra, cocoa
partners: New Zealand 34%, American Samoa 21%, Germany 18%, Australia
11%
Imports: $11.5 million (c.i.f., 1992 est.) commodities: intermediate goods 58%, food 17%, capital goods 12% partners: New Zealand 37%, Australia 25%, Japan 11%, Fiji 9%
External debt: $141 million (June 1993)