Economy - overview  In this small landlocked economy, subsistence agriculture occupies more than 60% of the population. Manufacturing features a number of agroprocessing factories. Mining has declined in importance in recent years; high-grade iron ore deposits were depleted by 1978, and health concerns have cut world demand for asbestos. Exports of soft drink concentrate, sugar, and wood pulp 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 four-fifths of its imports and to which it sends three-fourths of its exports. Remittances from Swazi workers in South African mines supplement domestically earned income by as much as 20%. The government is trying to improve the atmosphere for foreign investment. Overgrazing, soil depletion, and drought persist as problems for the future.

GDP  purchasing power parity - $4.2 billion (1999 est.)

GDP - real growth rate  3.1% (1999 est.)

GDP - per capita  purchasing power parity - $4,200 (1999 est.)

GDP - composition by sector  agriculture:10%
industry:48%
services:42% (1997 est.)

Population below poverty line  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share  lowest 10%:NA%
highest 10%:NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices)  6% (1999 est.)

Labor force  NA

Labor force - by occupation  private sector about 70%, public sector about 30%

Unemployment rate  22% (1995 est.)

Budget  revenues:$400 million
expenditures:$450 million, including capital expenditures of $115 million (FY96/97)

Industries  mining (coal and asbestos), wood pulp, sugar, soft drink concentrates

Industrial production growth rate  3.7% (FY95/96)

Electricity - production  420 million kWh (1998)

Electricity - production by source  fossil fuel:48.81%
hydro:51.19%
nuclear:0%
other:0% (1998)

Electricity - consumption  1.078 billion kWh (1998)

Electricity - exports  0 kWh (1998)

Electricity - imports  687 million kWh
note:imports about 60% of its electricity from South Africa (1998)

Agriculture - products  sugarcane, cotton, corn, tobacco, rice, citrus, pineapples, sorghum, peanuts; cattle, goats, sheep

Exports  $825 million (f.o.b., 1999)

Exports - commodities  soft drink concentrates, sugar, wood pulp, cotton yarn, refrigerators, citrus and canned fruit

Exports - partners  South Africa 74%, EU 12%, Mozambique 5%, US, North Korea (1997)

Imports  $1.05 billion (f.o.b., 1999)

Imports - commodities  motor vehicles, machinery, transport equipment, foodstuffs, petroleum products, chemicals

Imports - partners  South Africa 83%, EU 6%, Japan, UK, Singapore (1997)

Debt - external  $180 million (1999)

Economic aid - recipient  $55 million (1995)

Currency  1 lilangeni (E) = 100 cents

Exchange rates  emalangeni (E) per US$1 - 6.1237 (January 2000), 6.1087 (1999), 5.4807 (1998), 4.6032 (1997), 4.2706 (1996), 3.6266 (1995); note - the Swazi lilangeni is at par with the South African rand