Overview: The tourist industry makes an important contribution to the economy, employing about 30% of the labor force and providing the main source of hard currency earnings. In recent years the government has launched a program to further promote the tourist industry by attracting foreign investment to upgrade hotels and other services. By doing so the government hopes to reduce an unemployment rate at the double-digit level.

GDP: $192 million, per capita $2,924; real growth rate 1.4%; (1986)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 2.6% (1987)

Unemployment rate: 15% (1986)

Budget: revenues $106 million; expenditures $130 million, including capital expenditures of $21 million (1987)

Exports: $19 million (f.o.b., 1986); @m5commodities--fish, copra, cinnamon bark, petroleum products (reexports); @m5partners--Pakistan, France, Reunion, UK, Mauritius

Imports: $106 million (f.o.b., 1986); @m5commodities--manufactured goods, food, tobacco, beverages, machinery and transportation equipment, petroleum products; @m5partners--Bahrain, UK, South Africa, Singapore, Japan, France

External debt: $178 million (December 1988)

Industrial production: growth rate 10.9% (1985)

Electricity: 25,000 kW capacity; 67 million kWh produced, 980 kWh per capita (1988)

Industries: tourism is the largest industry; processing of coconut and vanilla, fishing, coir rope factory, boat building, printing, furniture, beverage

Agriculture: cash crops--coconuts and copra, also cinnamon, vanilla, green leaf tea, patchouli (used for perfumes); food crops--small quantities of sweet potatoes, cassava, sugarcane, and bananas; not self-sufficient in foodstuffs and the bulk of the supply must be imported; cattle, pigs, fish

Aid: US commitments (FY78-87), $19 million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1978-86), $264 million; Communist countries (1970-87), $53 million

Currency: Seychelles rupee (plural--rupees); 1 Seychelles rupee (SRe) = 100 cents

Exchange rates: Seychelles rupees (SR) per US$1--5.4597 (January 1989), 5.3836 (1988), 5.5995 (1987), 6.1768 (1986), 7.1343 (1985)

Fiscal year: calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Seychelles on this page is re-published from the 1989 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Seychelles Economy 1989 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Seychelles Economy 1989 should be addressed to the CIA.