Overview: The economy is based on subsistence agriculture, which occupies much of the labor force and contributes about 25% to GDP. Manufacturing, which includes a number of agroprocessing factories, accounts for another 25% of GDP. Mining has declined in importance in recent years; high-grade iron ore deposits were depleted in 1978, and health concerns cut world demand for asbestos. Exports of sugar and forestry products are the main earners of hard currency. Surrounded by South Africa, except for a short border with Mozambique, Swaziland is heavily dependent on South Africa, from which it receives 90% of its imports and to which it sends about one-third of its exports.

GNP: $539 million, per capita $750; real growth rate 5.7% (1989 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 17% (1989 est.)

Unemployment rate: NA%

Budget: revenues $255 million; expenditures $253 million, including capital expenditures of $NA million (FY91 est.)

Exports: $394 million (f.o.b., 1988); commodities--sugar, asbestos, wood pulp, citrus, canned fruit, soft drink concentrates; partners--South Africa, UK, US

Imports: $386 million (f.o.b., 1988); commodities--motor vehicles, machinery, transport equipment, chemicals, petroleum products, foodstuffs; partners--South Africa, US, UK

External debt: $275 million (December 1987)

Industrial production: growth rate 24% (1986)

Electricity: 50,000 kW capacity; 130 million kWh produced, 170 kWh per capita (1989)

Industries: mining (coal and asbestos), wood pulp, sugar

Agriculture: accounts for 25% of GDP and over 60% of labor force; mostly subsistence agriculture; cash crops--sugarcane, citrus fruit, cotton, pineapples; other crops and livestock--corn, sorghum, peanuts, cattle, goats, sheep; not self-sufficient in grain

Aid: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-88), $132 million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-87), $468 million

Currency: lilangeni (plural--emalangeni); 1 lilangeni (E) = 100 cents

Exchange rates: emalangeni (E) per US$1--2.5555 (January 1990), 2.6166 (1989), 2.2611 (1988), 2.0350 (1987), 2.2685 (1986), 2.1911 (1985); note--the Swazi emalangeni is at par with the South African rand

Fiscal year: 1 April-31 March

NOTE: The information regarding Swaziland on this page is re-published from the 1990 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Swaziland Economy 1990 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Swaziland Economy 1990 should be addressed to the CIA.