Economy - overview:
Small, landlocked, and mountainous, Lesotho relies on remittances
from miners employed in South Africa and customs duties from the
Southern Africa Customs Union for the majority of government
revenue, but the government has strengthened its tax system to
reduce dependency on customs duties. Completion of a major
hydropower facility in January 1998 now permits the sale of water to
South Africa, also generating royalties for Lesotho. As the number
of mineworkers has declined steadily over the past several years, a
small manufacturing base has developed based on farm products that
support the milling, canning, leather, and jute industries and a
rapidly growing apparel-assembly sector. The economy is still
primarily based on subsistence agriculture, especially livestock,
although drought has decreased agricultural activity. The extreme
inequality in the distribution of income remains a major drawback.
Lesotho has signed an Interim Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility
with the IMF.
GDP:
purchasing power parity - $5.106 billion (2002 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
4% (2002 est.)
GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $2,700 (2002 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 20%
industry: 46%
services: 34% (2001)
Population below poverty line:
49% (1999)
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 0.9%
highest 10%: 43.4%
Distribution of family income - Gini index:
56 (1986-87)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
10% (2002 est.)
Labor force:
838,000
Labor force - by occupation:
86% of resident population engaged in subsistence agriculture;
roughly 35% of the active male wage earners work in South Africa
Unemployment rate:
45% (2002)
Budget:
revenues: $76 million
expenditures: $80 million, including capital expenditures of $15
million (FY 99/00 est.)
Industries:
food, beverages, textiles, apparel assembly, handicrafts;
construction; tourism
Industrial production growth rate:
15.5% (1999)
Electricity - production:
0 kWh NA kWh; note - electricity supplied by South Africa (2001)
Electricity - consumption:
40 million kWh (2001)
Electricity - exports:
0 kWh (2001)
Electricity - imports:
40 million kWh; note - electricity supplied by South Africa (2001)
Oil - production:
0 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil - consumption:
1,500 bbl/day (2001)
Oil - exports:
NA (2001)
Oil - imports:
NA (2001)
Agriculture - products:
corn, wheat, pulses, sorghum, barley; livestock
Exports:
$422 million f.o.b. (2002 est.)
Exports - commodities:
manufactures 75% (clothing, footwear, road vehicles), wool and
mohair, food and live animals (2000)
Exports - partners:
US 97.5%, Canada 0.9%, France 0.6% (2002)
Imports:
$738 million f.o.b. (2002 est.)
Imports - commodities:
food; building materials, vehicles, machinery, medicines, petroleum
products (2000)
Imports - partners:
Hong Kong 51.9%, China 25%, France 3.9% (2002)
Debt - external:
$735 million (2002)
Economic aid - donor:
ODA $4.4 million
Economic aid - recipient:
$41.5 million (2000)
Currency:
loti (LSL); South African rand (ZAR)
Currency code:
LSL; ZAR
Exchange rates:
maloti per US dollar - 10.54 (2002), 8.61 (2001), 6.94 (2000), 6.11
(1999), 5.53 (1998)
Fiscal year:
1 April - 31 March