Burundi Economy - 2004

Economy - overview:
Burundi is a landlocked, resource-poor country with an underdeveloped manufacturing sector. The economy is predominantly agricultural with roughly 90% of the population dependent on subsistence agriculture. Economic growth depends on coffee and tea exports, which account for 90% of foreign exchange earnings. The ability to pay for imports, therefore, rests primarily on weather conditions and international coffee and tea prices. The Tutsi minority, 14% of the population, dominates the government and the coffee trade at the expense of the Hutu majority, 85% of the population. Since October 1993 an ethnic-based war has resulted in more than 200,000 deaths, forced 800,000 refugees into Tanzania, and displaced 525,000 others internally. Doubts about the prospects for sustainable peace continue to impede development. Only one in two children go to school, and approximately one in ten adults has HIV/AIDS. Food, medicine, and electricity remain in short supply.

GDP:
purchasing power parity - $3.83 billion (2003 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
0% (2003 est.)

GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $600 (2003 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 40.5%
industry: 18.6%
services: 40.9% (2002 est.)

Population below poverty line:
68% (2002 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 1.8%
highest 10%: 32.9% (1998)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
42.5 (1998)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
11% (2003 est.)

Labor force:
2.99 million (2002)

Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture 93.6%, industry 2.3%, services 4.1% (2002 est.)

Unemployment rate:
NA% (2003 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $125 million
expenditures: $176 million, including capital expenditures of $NA (2000 est.)

Industries:
light consumer goods such as blankets, shoes, soap; assembly of imported components; public works construction; food processing

Industrial production growth rate:
18% (2001)

Electricity - production:
155.4 million kWh (2001)

Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel: 0.6%
hydro: 99.4%
other: 0% (2001)
nuclear: 0%

Electricity - consumption:
177.5 million kWh (2001)

Electricity - exports:
0 kWh (2001)

Electricity - imports:
33 million kWh; note - supplied by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2001)

Oil - production:
0 bbl/day (2001 est.)

Oil - consumption:
2,750 bbl/day (2001 est.)

Oil - exports:
NA

Oil - imports:
NA

Agriculture - products:
coffee, cotton, tea, corn, sorghum, sweet potatoes, bananas, manioc (tapioca); beef, milk, hides

Exports:
$40 million f.o.b. (2003 est.)

Exports - commodities:
coffee, tea, sugar, cotton, hides

Exports - partners:
Germany 25%, Belgium 14.3%, Kenya 10.7%, Netherlands 7.1%, Rwanda 7.1% (2002)

Imports:
$128 million f.o.b. (2003 est.)

Imports - commodities:
capital goods, petroleum products, foodstuffs

Imports - partners:
Belgium 12%, Saudi Arabia 12%, France 7.5%, Kenya 7.5%, Tanzania 6%, Algeria 5.3%, India 4.5% (2002)

Debt - external:
$1,132.5 million (2002)

Economic aid - recipient:
$92.7 million (2000)

Currency:
Burundi franc (BIF)

Currency code:
BIF

Exchange rates:
Burundi francs per US dollar - 1,082.62 (2003), 930.75 (2002), 830.35 (2001), 720.67 (2000), 563.56 (1999)