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Belgium Economy 1996


    • Overview:
      This small private enterprise economy has capitalized on its central geographic location, highly developed transport network, and diversified industrial and commercial base. Industry is concentrated mainly in the populous Flemish area in the north, although the government is encouraging reinvestment in the southern region of Walloon. With few natural resources Belgium must import substantial quantities of raw materials and export a large volume of manufactures, making its economy unusually dependent on the state of world markets. Three-fourths of its trade is with other EU countries. The economy grew at a strong 4% pace during the period 1988-90, slowed to 1% in 1991-92, dropped by 1.5% in 1993, and recovered with 2.3% growth in 1994. Belgium's public debt has risen to 140% of GDP, and the government is trying to control its expenditures to bring the figure more into line with other industrialized countries.

    • National product:
      GDP - purchasing power parity - $181.5 billion (1994 est.)

    • National product real growth rate:
      2.3% (1994 est.)

    • National product per capita:
      $18,040 (1994 est.)

    • Inflation rate (consumer prices):
      2.5% (1994)

    • Unemployment rate:
      14.1% (December 1994)

    • Budget:

        revenues:
        $97.8 billion

        expenditures:
        $109.3 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (1989)

    • Exports:
      $117 billion (f.o.b., 1992) Belgium-Luxembourg Economic Union

        commodities:
        iron and steel, transportation equipment, tractors, diamonds, petroleum products

        partners:
        EC 75.5%, US 3.7%, former Communist countries 1.4% (1991)

    • Imports:
      $120 billion (c.i.f., 1992) Belgium-Luxembourg Economic Union

        commodities:
        fuels, grains, chemicals, foodstuffs

        partners:
        EC 73%, US 4.8%, oil-exporting less developed countries 4%, former Communist countries 1.8% (1991)

    • External debt:
      $31.3 billion (1992 est.)

    • Industrial production:
      growth rate -0.1% (1993 est.); accounts for 25% of GDP

    • Electricity:

        capacity:
        14,040,000 kW

        production:
        66 billion kWh

        consumption per capita:
        6,334 kWh (1993)

    • Industries:
      engineering and metal products, motor vehicle assembly, processed food and beverages, chemicals, basic metals, textiles, glass, petroleum, coal

    • Agriculture:
      accounts for 2.0% of GDP; emphasis on livestock production - beef, veal, pork, milk; major crops are sugar beets, fresh vegetables, fruits, grain, tobacco; net importer of farm products

    • Illicit drugs:
      source of precursor chemicals for South American cocaine processors; transshipment point for cocaine entering the European market

    • Economic aid:

        donor:
        ODA and OOF commitments (1970-89), $5.8 billion

    • Currency:
      1 Belgian franc (BF) = 100 centimes

    • Exchange rates:
      Belgian francs (BF) per US$1 - 31.549 (January 1995), 33.456 (1994), 34.597 (1993), 32.150 (1992), 34.148 (1991), 33.418 (1990)

    • Fiscal year:
      calendar year






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