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 containment of the recent rise in crime.

GDP purchasing power parity - $17 billion (2001 est.)

GDP - real growth rate 2.1% (2001 est.)

GDP - per capita purchasing power parity - $2,600 (2001 est.)

GDP - composition by sector
agriculture: 18%
industry: 32%
services: 50% (2000 est.)

Population below poverty line 53% (1993 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share
lowest 10%: 0.4%
highest 10%: 44.3% (1997)

Distribution of family income - Gini index 59 (1997)

Inflation rate (consumer prices) 9.7% (2001 est.)

Labor force 2.3 million (1997 est.)

Labor force - by occupation agriculture 34%, industry 21%, services 45% (2001 est.)

Unemployment rate 28% (2001 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 3.573 billion kWh (2000)

Electricity - production by source
fossil fuel: 36.89%
hydro: 63.11%
other: 0% (2000)
nuclear: 0%

Electricity - consumption 3.593 billion kWh (2000)

Electricity - exports 5 million kWh (2000)

Electricity - imports 275 million kWh (2000)

Agriculture - products bananas, coffee, citrus; beef; timber; shrimp

Exports $2 billion (f.o.b., 2001 est.)

Exports - commodities coffee, bananas, shrimp, lobster, meat; zinc, lumber

Exports - partners US 39.9%, El Salvador 9.2%, Germany 7.9%, Belgium 5.8%, Guatemala 5.4% (2000)

Imports $2.7 billion (f.o.b., 2001 est.)

Imports - commodities machinery and transport equipment, industrial raw materials, chemical products, fuels, foodstuffs

Imports - partners US 46.1%, Guatemala 8.2%, El Salvador 6.6%, Mexico 4.7%, Japan 4.6% (2000)

Debt - external $5.6 billion (2001)

Economic aid - recipient $557.8 million (1999)

Currency lempira (HNL)

Currency code HNL

Exchange rates lempiras per US dollar - 16.0256 (January 2002), 15.9197 (2001), 15.1407 (2000), 14.5039 (1999), 13.8076 (1998), 13.0942 (1997)

Fiscal year calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Honduras on this page is re-published from the 2002 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Honduras Economy 2002 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Honduras Economy 2002 should be addressed to the CIA.