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
the death of over 200,000 persons, sent 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 - $3.146 billion (2002 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
4.5% (2002 est.)
GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $500 (2002 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 50%
industry: 19%
services: 31% (2002 est.)
Population below poverty line:
70% (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):
12% (2002 est.)
Labor force:
3.7 million (2000)
Labor force - by occupation:
NA
Unemployment rate:
NA%
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 (2001)
Oil - imports:
NA (2001)
Agriculture - products:
coffee, cotton, tea, corn, sorghum, sweet potatoes, bananas, manioc
(tapioca); beef, milk, hides
Exports:
$26 million f.o.b. (2002 est.)
Exports - commodities:
coffee, tea, sugar, cotton, hides
Exports - partners:
Switzerland 28.8%, Germany 20.2%, Belgium 9.4%, Kenya 7.8%, Rwanda
6.5%, Netherlands 4.6% (2002)
Imports:
$135 million f.o.b. (2002 est.)
Imports - commodities:
capital goods, petroleum products, foodstuffs
Imports - partners:
Belgium 12.4%, Saudi Arabia 12.3%, Tanzania 9.3%, Kenya 7.7%,
France 7.4%, India 4.5% (2002)
Debt - external:
$1.14 billion (2001)
Economic aid - recipient:
$92.7 million (2000)
Currency:
Burundi franc (BIF)
Currency code:
BIF
Exchange rates:
Burundi francs per US dollar - NA (2002), 830.35 (2001), 720.67
(2000), 563.56 (1999), 447.77 (1998)
Fiscal year:
calendar year