Economy - overview:
Burma is a resource-rich country that suffers from abject rural
poverty. The military regime took steps in the early 1990s to
liberalize the economy after decades of failure under the "Burmese
Way to Socialism", but those efforts have since stalled. Burma has
been unable to achieve monetary or fiscal stability, resulting in an
economy that suffers from serious macroeconomic imbalances -
including a steep inflation rate and an official exchange rate that
overvalues the Burmese kyat by more than 100 times the market rate.
In addition, most overseas development assistance ceased after the
junta suppressed the democracy movement in 1988 and subsequently
ignored the results of the 1990 election. Burma is data poor, and
official statistics are often dated and inaccurate. Published
estimates of Burma's foreign trade are greatly understated because
of the size of the black market and border trade - often estimated
to be one to two times the official economy.
GDP:
purchasing power parity - $73.69 billion (2002 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
5.3% (2002 est.)
GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $1,700 (2002 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 60%
industry: 9%
services: 31% (2002 est.)
Population below poverty line:
25% (2000 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 2.8%
highest 10%: 32.4% (1998)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
53.7% (2002 est.)
Labor force:
23.7 million (1999 est.)
Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture 70%, industry 7%, services 23% (2001 est.)
Unemployment rate:
5.1% (2001 est.)
Budget:
revenues: $7.9 billion
expenditures: $12.2 billion, including capital expenditures of $5.7
billion (FY96/97)
Industries:
agricultural processing; knit and woven apparel; wood and wood
products; copper, tin, tungsten, iron; construction materials;
pharmaceuticals; fertilizer
Industrial production growth rate:
NA%
Electricity - production:
6.139 billion kWh (2001)
Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel: 44.4%
hydro: 55.6%
other: 0% (2001)
nuclear: 0%
Electricity - consumption:
5.709 billion kWh (2001)
Electricity - exports:
0 kWh (2001)
Electricity - imports:
0 kWh (2001)
Oil - production:
14,170 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil - consumption:
38,000 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil - exports:
NA (2001)
Oil - imports:
NA (2001)
Oil - proved reserves:
142.5 million bbl (37257)
Natural gas - production:
7.35 billion cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - consumption:
2.15 billion cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - exports:
5.2 billion cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - imports:
0 cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - proved reserves:
314.4 billion cu m (37257)
Agriculture - products:
rice, pulses, beans, sesame, groundnuts, sugarcane; hardwood; fish
and fish products
Exports:
$2.7 billion f.o.b. (2002)
Exports - commodities:
gas, wood products, pulses, beans, fish, rice
Exports - partners:
Thailand 31.4%, US 13%, India 7.4%, China 4.7% (2002)
Imports:
$2.5 billion f.o.b. (2002)
Imports - commodities:
machinery, transport equipment, construction materials, crude oil;
food products
Imports - partners:
China 27%, Singapore 19.5%, Thailand 12%, Malaysia 9.1%, Taiwan
6.3%, South Korea 5.3%, Japan 4.3% (2002)
Debt - external:
$6.1 billion (2002 est.)
Economic aid - recipient:
$99 million (FY98/99)
Currency:
kyat (MMK)
Currency code:
MMK
Exchange rates:
kyats per US dollar - 6.64 (2002), 6.75 (2001), 6.52 (2000), 6.29
(1999), 6.34 (1998)
Fiscal year:
1 April - 31 March