Nicaraguan External Environment

13 Pages 3148 Words

re: lowest 10%: 0.7%
highest 10%: 48.8% (1998)
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 5.3% (2003 est.)

Labor force: 1.91 million (2003)

Labor force - by occupation: agriculture 42%, industry 15%, services 43% (1999 est.)

Unemployment rate: 22% plus considerable underemployment (2003 est.)

Budget: 22% plus considerable underemployment (2003 est.)

Public debt: 125.3% of GDP (2003)

Agriculture - products: coffee, bananas, sugarcane, cotton, rice, corn, tobacco, sesame, soy, beans; beef, veal, pork, poultry, dairy products


Industries: food processing, chemicals, machinery and metal products, textiles, clothing, petroleum refining and distribution, beverages, footwear, wood

Industrial production growth rate: 4.4% (2000 est.)

Electricity - production: 2.549 billion kWh (2001)


Electricity - consumption: 2.388 billion kWh (2001)
Electricity - exports: 0 kWh (2001)

Electricity - imports: 17 million kWh (2001)

Exports: $632 million f.o.b. (2003 est.)

Exports - commodities: coffee, shrimp and lobster, cotton, tobacco, bananas, beef, sugar, gold

Exports - partners: US 58.3%, El Salvador 8.2%, Honduras 5.2% (2003 est.)

Imports: $1.658 billion f.o.b. (2003 est.)

Imports - commodities: machinery and equipment, raw materials, petroleum products, consumer goods

Imports - partners: US 22.6%, Costa Rica 10.3%, Guatemala 7.9%, Venezuela 7.5%, El Salvador 6.1%, México 5.4%, South Korea 4.7% (2003 est.)

Reserves of foreign exchange & gold: $502 million (2003)

Debt - external: $5.833 billion (2003 est.)

Economic aid - recipient: Substantial foreign support (2001)

Currency: gold Cordoba (NIO)

Exchange rates: gold Cordoba’s per US dollar – 16.10 (September 2004) 14.2513 (2003), 14.2513 (2002), 13.3719 (2001), 12.6844 (2000), 11.8092 (1999)

Social Factors:

Population: 5,359,759 (July 2004...