Economy - overview:
In this small, landlocked economy, subsistence agriculture occupies
more than 80% of the population. The manufacturing sector has
diversified since the mid-1980s. Sugar and wood pulp remain
important foreign exchange earners. Mining has declined in
importance in recent years with only coal and quarry stone mines
remaining active. Surrounded by South Africa, except for a short
border with Mozambique, Swaziland is heavily dependent on South
Africa from which it receives nine-tenths of its imports and to
which it sends more than two-thirds of its exports. Customs duties
from the Southern African Customs Union and worker remittances from
South Africa substantially supplement domestically earned income.
The government is trying to improve the atmosphere for foreign
investment. Overgrazing, soil depletion, drought, and sometimes
floods persist as problems for the future. More than one-fourth of
the population needed emergency food aid in 2002 because of drought,
and more than one-third of the adult population was infected by
HIV/AIDS.
GDP:
purchasing power parity - $5.542 billion (2002 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
1.6% (2002 est.)
GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $4,800 (2002 est.)
GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 17% industry: 44% services: 39% (2001 est.)
Population below poverty line:
40% (1995)
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 1%
highest 10%: 50.2% (1995)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
11.8% (2002 est.)
Labor force:
383,200 (2000)
Labor force - by occupation:
NA