Flag: red, divided diagonally from the lower hoist side by a yellow band; the upper triangle (hoist side) is green and the lower triangle is red; uses the popular pan-African colors of Ethiopia
@Congo:Economy
Overview: Congo's economy is a mixture of village agriculture and handicrafts, an industrial sector based largely on oil, support services, and a government characterized by budget problems and overstaffing. A reform program, supported by the IMF and World Bank, ran into difficulties in 1990-91 because of problems in changing to a democratic political regime and a heavy debt-servicing burden. Oil has supplanted forestry as the mainstay of the economy, providing about two-thirds of government revenues and exports. In the early 1980s rapidly rising oil revenues enabled Congo to finance large-scale development projects with growth averaging 5% annually, one of the highest rates in Africa. Subsequently, growth has slowed to an average of roughly 1.5% annually, only two-thirds of the population growth rate. Political turmoil and misguided government investment have derailed economic reform programs sponsored by the IMF and World Bank. Even with these difficulties Congo enjoys one of the highest incomes per capita in sub-Saharan Africa
National product: GDP - purchasing power parity - $6.7 billion (1993 est.)
National product real growth rate: -2.1% (1993 est.)
National product per capita: $2,820 (1994 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 2.2% (1992 est.)
Unemployment rate: NA%
Budget:
revenues: $765 million
expenditures: $952 million, including capital expenditures of $65
million (1990)
Exports: $1.1 billion (f.o.b., 1993)
commodities: crude oil 83%, lumber, plywood, sugar, cocoa, coffee,
diamonds
partners: US, Italy, France, Spain, other EC countries