Economy - overview:
In this small, landlocked economy, subsistence agriculture occupies
more than 80% of the population. The manufacturing sector has
diversified since the mid-1980s. Sugar and wood pulp remain
important foreign exchange earners. Mining has declined in
importance in recent years with only coal and quarry stone mines
remaining active. Surrounded by South Africa, except for a short
border with Mozambique, Swaziland is heavily dependent on South
Africa from which it receives nine-tenths of its imports and to
which it sends more than two-thirds of its exports. Customs duties
from the Southern African Customs Union and worker remittances from
South Africa substantially supplement domestically earned income.
The government is trying to improve the atmosphere for foreign
investment. Overgrazing, soil depletion, drought, and sometimes
floods persist as problems for the future. More than one-fourth of
the population needed emergency food aid in 2002 because of drought,
and more than one-third of the adult population was infected by
HIV/AIDS.
GDP:
purchasing power parity - $5.542 billion (2002 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
1.6% (2002 est.)
GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $4,800 (2002 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 17%
industry: 44%
services: 39% (2001 est.)
Population below poverty line:
40% (1995)
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 1%
highest 10%: 50.2% (1995)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
11.8% (2002 est.)
Labor force:
383,200 (2000)
Labor force - by occupation:
NA
Unemployment rate:
34% (2000 est.)
Budget:
revenues: $448 million
expenditures: $506.9 million, including capital expenditures of $147
million (FY 01/02)
Industries:
mining (coal), wood pulp, sugar, soft drink concentrates, textile
and apparel
Industrial production growth rate:
3.7% (FY 95/96)
Electricity - production:
348.3 million kWh (2001)
Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel: 58%
hydro: 42%
other: 0% (2001)
nuclear: 0%
Electricity - consumption:
962.9 million kWh (2001)
Electricity - exports:
0 kWh (2001)
Electricity - imports:
639 million kWh; note - electricity supplied by South Africa (2001)
Oil - production:
0 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil - consumption:
3,500 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil - exports:
NA (2001)
Oil - imports:
NA (2001)
Agriculture - products:
sugarcane, cotton, corn, tobacco, rice, citrus, pineapples,
sorghum, peanuts; cattle, goats, sheep
Exports:
$820 million f.o.b. (2002 est.)
Exports - commodities:
soft drink concentrates, sugar, wood pulp, cotton yarn,
refrigerators, citrus and canned fruit
Exports - partners:
South Africa 72%, EU 14.2%, Mozambique 3.7%, US 3.5%, UK (1999)
Imports:
$938 million f.o.b. (2002)
Imports - commodities:
motor vehicles, machinery, transport equipment, foodstuffs,
petroleum products, chemicals
Imports - partners:
South Africa 88.8%, EU 5.6%, Japan 0.6%, Singapore 0.4% (1999)
Debt - external:
$320 million (2002 est.)
Economic aid - recipient:
$104 million (2001)
Currency:
lilangeni (SZL)
Currency code:
SZL
Exchange rates:
emalangeni per US dollar - 10.54 (2002), 8.61 (2001), 6.94 (2000),
6.11 (1999), 5.53 (1998)
Fiscal year:
1 April - 31 March