Economy - overview In this small landlocked economy, subsistence agriculture occupies more than 60% of the population. Manufacturing features a number of agroprocessing factories. Mining has declined in importance in recent years; high-grade iron ore deposits were depleted by 1978, and health concerns have cut world demand for asbestos. Exports of soft drink concentrate, sugar and wood pulp are the main earners of hard currency. Surrounded by South Africa, except for a short border with Mozambique, Swaziland is heavily dependent on South Africa from which it receives nearly 90% of its imports and to which it sends more than half of its exports. Remittances from Swazi workers in South African mines supplement domestically earned income by as much as 20%. The government is trying to improve the atmosphere for foreign investment. Overgrazing, soil depletion, and drought persist as problems for the future.

GDP purchasing power parity - $3.9 billion (1997 est.)

GDP - real growth rate 3% (19976 est.)

GDP - per capita purchasing power parity - $3,800 (1997 est.)

GDP - composition by sector
agriculture: 10%
industry: 42%
services: 48% (1997 est.)

Inflation rate - consumer price index 9.5% (1997)

Labor force
total: 135,000 (1996)
by occupation: private sector about 70%, public sector about 30%

Unemployment rate 22% (1995 est.)

Budget
revenues: $400 million
expenditures: $450 million, including capital expenditures of $115 million (FY96/97)

Industries mining (coal and asbestos), wood pulp, sugar, soft drink concentrates

Industrial production growth rate 3.7% (FY95/96)

Electricity - capacity 130,000 kW (1995)

Electricity - production 407 million kWh (1995)
note: imports 60% of its electricity from South Africa

Electricity - consumption per capita 1,062 kWh (1995)

Agriculture - products sugarcane, cotton, maize, tobacco, rice, citrus, pineapples, corn, sorghum, peanuts; cattle, goats, sheep

Exports
total value: $893 million (f.o.b., 1996)
commodities: soft drink concentrates, sugar, wood pulp, cotton yarn (1995)
partners: South Africa 58%, EU 20%, Mozambique 6% (1994)

Imports
total value: $1.1 billion (f.o.b., 1996)
commodities: motor vehicles, machinery, transport equipment, foodstuffs, petroleum products, chemicals (1995)
partners: South Africa 88%, Japan, UK, US (FY94/95)

Debt - external $194 million (1995)

Economic aid
recipient: ODA, $NA

Currency 1 lilangeni (E) = 100 cents

Exchange rates emalangeni (E) per US$1 - 4.9417 (January 1998), 4.5998 (1997), 4.2706 (1996), 3.6266 (1995), 3.5490 (1994), 3.2636 (1993); note - the Swazi emalangeni are at par with the South African rand

Fiscal year 1 April - 31 March

NOTE: The information regarding Swaziland on this page is re-published from the 1998 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Swaziland Economy 1998 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Swaziland Economy 1998 should be addressed to the CIA.