Overview: The economy is heavily dependent on subsistence agriculture, which accounts for about 33% of GDP and provides employment for 78% of the labor force. Primary agricultural exports are cocoa, coffee, and cotton, which together generate about 30% of total export earnings. Togo is self-sufficient in basic foodstuffs when harvests are normal. In the industrial sector phosphate mining is by far the most important activity, although it has suffered from the collapse of World phosphate prices and increased foreign competition. Togo serves as a regional commercial and trade center. The government's decade-long IMF and World Bank supported effort to implement economic reform measures to encourage foreign investment and bring revenues in line with expenditures has stalled. Political unrest, including private and public sector strikes throughout 1992 and 1993, has jeopardized the reform program and has disrupted vital economic activity.

National product: GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $3.3 billion (1993 est.)

National product real growth rate: NA

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

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 0.5% (1991 est.)

Unemployment rate: NA%

Budget:
revenues: $284 million
expenditures: $407 million, including capital expenditures of $NA (1991 est.)

Exports: $558 million (f.o.b., 1991)
commodities: phosphates, cotton, cocoa, coffee
partners: EC 40%, Africa 16%, US 1% (1990)

Imports: $636 million (f.o.b., 1991)
commodities: machinery and equipment, consumer goods, food, chemical products
partners: EC 57%, Africa 17%, US 5%, Japan 4% (1990)

External debt: $1.3 billion (1991)

Industrial production: growth rate 9% (1991 est.); accounts for 20% of GDP

Electricity:
capacity: 179,000 kW
production: 209 million kWh
consumption per capita: 60 kWh (1990)

Industries: phosphate mining, agricultural processing, cement, handicrafts, textiles, beverages

Agriculture: accounts for 33% of GDP; cash crops - coffee, cocoa, cotton; food crops - yams, cassava, corn, beans, rice, millet, sorghum; livestock production not significant; annual fish catch of 10,000-14,000 tons

Illicit drugs: increasingly used as transit hub by heroin traffickers

Economic aid:
recipient: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-90), $142 million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-90), $2 billion; OPEC bilateral aid (1979-89), $35 million; Communist countries (1970-89), $51 million

Currency: 1 CFA franc (CFAF) = 100 centimes
Exchange rates: Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (CFAF) per US$1 - 592.05 (January 1994), 283.16 (1993), 264.69 (1992), 282.11 (1991), 272.26 (1990), 319.01 (1989)
note: the official rate is pegged to the French franc, and beginning 12 January 1994, the CFA franc was devalued to CFAF 100 per French franc from CFAF 50 at which it had been fixed since 1948

Fiscal year: calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Togo 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 Togo Economy 1995 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Togo Economy 1995 should be addressed to the CIA.