Overview: The economy is dominated by the bauxite industry, which accounts for 15% of GDP and about 70% of export earnings. The economy has been in trouble since the Dutch ended development aid in 1982. A drop in world bauxite prices which started in the late 1970s and continued until late 1986 was followed by the outbreak of a guerrilla insurgency in the interior that crippled the important bauxite sector. Although the insurgency has since ebbed and the bauxite sector recovered, Paramaribo has failed to initiate the economic reforms necessary to stabilize the economy or win renewed Dutch aid disbursements. High inflation, high unemployment, widespread black market activity, and hard currency shortfalls continue to mark the economy.

National product: GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $1.17 billion (1993 est.)

National product real growth rate: -0.3% (1993 est.)

National product per capita: $2,800 (1993 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 109% (1993 est.)

Unemployment rate: 16.5% (1990)

Budget:
revenues: $466 million
expenditures: $716 million, including capital expenditures of $123 million (1989 est.)

Exports: $290 million (f.o.b., 1993 est.)
commodities: alumina, aluminum, shrimp and fish, rice, bananas
partners: Norway 33%, Netherlands 26%, US 13%, Japan 6%, Brazil 6%, UK 3% (1992)

Imports: $250 million (f.o.b., 1993 est.)
commodities: capital equipment, petroleum, foodstuffs, cotton, consumer goods
partners: US 42%, Netherlands 22%, Trinidad and Tobago 10%, Brazil 5% (1992)

External debt: $180 million (March 1993 est.)

Industrial production: growth rate -5% (1991 est.); accounts for 27% of GDP

Electricity:
capacity: 458,000 kW
production: 2.018 billion kWh
consumption per capita: 4,920 kWh (1992)

Industries: bauxite mining, alumina and aluminum production, lumbering, food processing, fishing

Agriculture: accounts for 10.4% of GDP and 25% of export earnings; paddy rice planted on 85% of arable land and represents 60% of total farm output; other products - bananas, palm kernels, coconuts, plantains, peanuts, beef, chicken; shrimp and forestry products of increasing importance; self-sufficient in most foods

Economic aid:
recipient: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-83), $2.5 billion; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-89), $1.5 billion

Currency: 1 Surinamese guilder, gulden, or florin (Sf.) = 100 cents
Exchange rates: Surinamese guilders, gulden, or florins (Sf.) per US$1 - 1.7850 (fixed rate); parallel rate 109 (January 1994)

Fiscal year: calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Suriname on this page is re-published from the 1995 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Suriname Economy 1995 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Suriname Economy 1995 should be addressed to the CIA.