Economy - overview: El Salvador possesses a fast-growing entrepreneurial economy in which 90% of economic activity is in private hands, with growth averaging 5% since 1990. Yet, because the 1980s were a decade of civil war and stagnation, per capita GDP has not regained the level of the late 1970s. The rebound in the 1990s stems from the government program, in conjunction with the IMF, of privatization, deregulation, and fiscal stabilization. The economy now is oriented more toward manufacturing and services compared with agriculture. The sizable trade deficits are in the main covered by remittances from the large number of Salvadorans abroad.
GDP: purchasing power parity - $12.2 billion (1996 est.)
GDP - real growth rate: 3% (1996 est.)
GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $2,080 (1996 est.)
GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 14% industry : 27% services: 59% (1995)
Inflation rate - consumer price index: 7.4% (1996)
Labor force: total: 2.2 million (1996 est.) by occupation: agriculture 40%, commerce 16%, manufacturing 15%, government 13%, financial services 9%, transportation 6%, other 1%
Unemployment rate: 7.6% (1996 est.)
Budget: revenues : $1.75 billion expenditures: $1.82 billion, including capital expenditures of $317 million (1997 est.)
Industries: food processing, beverages, petroleum, chemicals, fertilizer, textiles, furniture, light metals