Swaziland Economy:
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 about nine-tenths of its imports and to which it sends nearly three-quarters 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 2004 because of drought, and more than one-third of the adult population was infected by HIV/AIDS.
GDP (purchasing power parity):
$6.02 billion (2004 est.)
GDP — real growth rate:
2.5% (2004 est.)
GDP — per capita:
purchasing power parity: $5,100 (2004 est.)
GDP — composition by sector:
agriculture: 16.1%
industry: 43.4%
services: 40.5%
(2004)
Labor force:
383,200 (2000 est.)
Labor force — by occupation:
NA
Unemployment rate:
34% (2000 est.)
Population below poverty line:
40% (1995 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 1%
highest 10%: 50.2% (1995)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
5.4% (2004 est.)
Investment (gross fixed):
23.6% of GDP (2004 est.)
Budget:
revenues: $494.6 million (2004 est.)
expenditures: $552.7 million including capital expenditures of $147 (2004 est.)
Agriculture — products:
Sugarcane, cotton, corn, tobacco, rice, citrus, pineapples, sorghum, peanuts; cattle, goats, sheep
Industries:
mining (coal, raw asbestos), wood pulp, sugar, soft drink concentrates, textile and apparel
Industrial production growth rate:
3.7% (FY95/96 est.)
Electricity — production:
402 million kWh (2002 est.)
Electricity — consumption:
1.17 billion kWh (2002 est.)
Electricity — exports:
0 kWh (2002 est.)
Electricity — imports:
799 million kWh (2002 est.)
note: Electricity supplied by South Africa
Oil — production:
0 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil — consumption:
3,500 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil — exports:
NA
Oil — imports:
NA
Current account balance:
$-82.4 million (2004 est.)
Exports:
$900.1 million (f.o.b. 2004 est.)
Exports — commodities:
soft drink concentrates, sugar, wood pulp, cotton yarn, refrigerators, citrus, canned fruit
Exports — partners:
South Africa 59.7%, EU 8.8%, US 8.8%, Mozambique 6.2%, (2004)
Imports:
$1.14 billion (f.o.b. 2004 est.)
Imports — commodities:
motor vehicles, machinery, transport equipment, foodstuffs, petroleum products, chemicals
Imports — partners:
South Africa 95.6%, EU 0.9%, Japan 0.9%, Singapore 0.3% (2004)
Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
$320.5 million (2004 est.)
Debt — external:
$320 million (2002 est.)
Economic aid — recipient:
$104 million (2001 est.)
Currency:
lilangeni (SZL)
Exchange rates:
emalangeni per US$: 6.46 (2004 est.), 7.56 (2003 est.), 10.54 (2002 est.), 8.61 (2001 est.), 6.94 (2000 est.)
Fiscal year:
1 April - 31 March
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