Economy - overview:
Honduras, one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere
with an extraordinarily unequal distribution of income, is banking
on expanded trade privileges under the Enhanced Caribbean Basin
Initiative and on debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor
Countries (HIPC) initiative. While the country has met most of its
macroeconomic targets, it failed to meet the IMF's goals to
liberalize its energy and telecommunications sectors. Growth remains
dependent on the status of the US economy, its major trading
partner, on commodity prices, particularly coffee, and on reduction
of the high crime rate.
GDP:
purchasing power parity - $16.29 billion (2002 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
2.5% (2002 est.)
GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $2,500 (2002 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 14%
industry: 32%
services: 54% (2002 est.)
Population below poverty line:
53% (1993 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 0.6%
highest 10%: 42.7% (1998)
Distribution of family income - Gini index:
56.3 (1998)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
7.7% (2002 est.)
Labor force:
2.3 million (1997 est.)
Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture 34%, industry 21%, services 45% (2001 est.)
Unemployment rate:
28% (2002 est.)
Budget:
revenues: $607 million
expenditures: $411.9 million, including capital expenditures of $106
million (1999 est.)
Industries:
sugar, coffee, textiles, clothing, wood products
Industrial production growth rate:
4% (1999 est.)
Electricity - production:
3.778 billion kWh (2001)
Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel: 50.2%
hydro: 49.8%
other: 0% (2001)
nuclear: 0%
Electricity - consumption:
3.822 billion kWh (2001)
Electricity - exports:
0 kWh (2001)
Electricity - imports:
308 million kWh (2001)
Oil - production:
0 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil - consumption:
29,000 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil - exports:
NA (2001)
Oil - imports:
NA (2001)
Agriculture - products:
bananas, coffee, citrus; beef; timber; shrimp
Exports:
$1.3 billion f.o.b. (2002 est.)
Exports - commodities:
coffee, bananas, shrimp, lobster, meat; zinc, lumber (2000)
Exports - partners:
US 69.5%, El Salvador 3%, Guatemala 2% (2002)
Imports:
$2.7 billion f.o.b. (2002 est.)
Imports - commodities:
machinery and transport equipment, industrial raw materials,
chemical products, fuels, foodstuffs (2000)
Imports - partners:
US 55.3%, El Salvador 4.3%, Mexico 4.2% (2002)
Debt - external:
$5.4 billion (2002)
Economic aid - recipient:
$557.8 million (1999)
Currency:
lempira (HNL)
Currency code:
HNL
Exchange rates:
lempiras per US dollar - 16.43 (2002), 15.47 (2001), 14.84 (2000),
14.21 (1999), 13.39 (1998)
Fiscal year:
calendar year