Flag description: the upper half is red with a yellow frigate bird flying over a yellow rising sun, and the lower half is blue with three horizontal wavy white stripes to represent the ocean
@Kiribati:Economy
Economy-overview: A remote country of 33 scattered coral atolls, Kiribati has few national resources. Commercially viable phosphate deposits were exhausted at the time of independence from the UK in 1979. Copra and fish now represent the bulk of production and exports. The economy has fluctuated widely in recent years. Real GDP growth has declined from about 10% in 1988 to about 2.6% in 1995 and 1.9% in 1996. Growth in 1997 was expected to parallel the 1996 performance. Economic development is constrained by a shortage of skilled workers, weak infrastructure, and remoteness from international markets. The financial sector is at an early stage of development as is the expansion of private sector initiatives. Foreign financial aid, largely from the UK and Japan, is a critical supplement to GDP, equal in amount to 25%-50% of GDP in recent years. Remittances from workers abroad account for more than $5 million each year.
GDP: purchasing power parity-$62 million (1996 est.)
GDP-real growth rate: 1.9% (1996 est.)
GDP-per capita: purchasing power parity-$800 (1996 est.)
GDP-composition by sector: agriculture: 14% industry: 7% services: 79% (1996 est.)
Inflation rate-consumer price index: -0.6% (1996 est.)
Labor force: total: 7,870 economically active, not including subsistence farmers (1985 est.)
Unemployment rate: 2%; underemployment 70% (1992 est.)