|
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 about nine-tenths of its imports and to which
it sends nearly three-quarters 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 - $5.702 billion (2003
est.) |
|
GDP - real growth
rate: |
2.2% (2003 est.) |
|
GDP - per capita: |
purchasing power parity - $4,900 (2003 est.) |
|
GDP - composition by
sector: |
agriculture: 16.2%
industry: 43.2%
services: 40.5% (2003 est.) |
|
Investment (gross
fixed): |
21.1% of GDP (2003) |
|
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): |
7.3% (2003 est.) |
|
Labor force: |
383,200 (2000) |
|
Labor force - by
occupation: |
NA |
|
Unemployment rate: |
34% (2000 est.) |
|
Budget: |
revenues: $462.4 million
expenditures: $563.4 million, including capital expenditures of
$147 million (2003) |
|
Agriculture -
products: |
sugarcane, cotton, corn, tobacco, rice, citrus,
pineapples, sorghum, peanuts; cattle, goats, sheep |
|
Industries: |
mining (coal), wood pulp, sugar, soft drink
concentrates, textile and apparel |
|
Industrial production
growth rate: |
3.7% (FY95/96) |
|
Electricity -
production: |
348.3 million kWh (2001) |
|
Electricity -
production by source: |
fossil fuel: 58%
hydro: 42%
other: 0% (2001)
nuclear: 0% |
|
Electricity -
consumption: |
962.9 million kWh (2001) |
|
Electricity - exports: |
0 kWh (2001) |
|
Electricity - imports: |
639 million kWh; note - electricity supplied by
South Africa (2001) |
|
Oil - production: |
0 bbl/day (2001 est.) |
|
Oil - consumption: |
3,500 bbl/day (2001 est.) |
|
Oil - exports: |
NA (2001) |
|
Oil - imports: |
NA (2001) |
|
Current account
balance: |
$-72.69 million (2003) |
|
Exports: |
$905.6 million f.o.b. (2003 est.)
|
|
Exports - commodities: |
soft drink concentrates, sugar, wood pulp, cotton
yarn, refrigerators, citrus and canned fruit |
|
Exports - partners: |
South Africa 72%, EU 14.2%, Mozambique 3.7%, US
3.5% (1999) |
|
Imports: |
$1.088 billion f.o.b. (2003 est.)
|
|
Imports - commodities: |
motor vehicles, machinery, transport equipment,
foodstuffs, petroleum products, chemicals |
|
Imports - partners: |
South Africa 88.8%, EU 5.6%, Japan 0.6%,
Singapore 0.4% (1999) |
|
Reserves of foreign
exchange & gold: |
$277.5 million (2003) |
|
Debt - external: |
$320 million (2002 est.) |
|
Economic aid -
recipient: |
$104 million (2001) |
|
Currency: |
lilangeni (SZL) |
|
Currency code: |
SZL |
|
Exchange rates: |
emalangeni per US dollar - 7.5648 (2003), 10.5407
(2002), 8.6092 (2001), 6.9398 (2000), 6.1095 (1999) |
|
Fiscal year: |
1 April - 31 March |