Imports - commodities: food, textiles, petroleum products, machinery, electrical equipment, motor vehicles, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, consumer goods, industrial products

Imports - partners: France 35%, Cameroon 13%, Benelux, Cote d'Ivoire,
Germany, Japan (1999)

Debt - external: $881.4 million (2000 est.)

Economic aid - recipient: $172.2 million (1995); note - traditional budget subsidies from France

Currency: Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XAF); note - responsible authority is the Bank of the Central African States

Currency code: XAF

Exchange rates: Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XAF) per US dollar - 742.79 (January 2002), 733.04 (2001), 711.98 (2000), 615.70 (1999), 589.95 (1998), 583.67 (1997); note - from 1 January 1999, the XAF is pegged to the euro at a rate of 655.957 XAF per euro

Fiscal year: calendar year

Communications Central African Republic

Telephones - main lines in use: 10,000 (1997)