Bosnia and Herzegovina Economy
Economy - overviewBosnia and Herzegovina ranked next to The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia as the poorest republic in the old Yugoslav federation. Although agriculture is almost all in private hands, farms are small and inefficient, and the republic traditionally is a net importer of food. Industry has been greatly overstaffed, one reflection of the socialist economic structure of Yugoslavia. TITO had pushed the development of military industries in the republic with the result that Bosnia hosted a number of Yugoslavia's defense plants. The interethnic warfare in Bosnia caused production to plummet by 80% from 1992 to 1995 and unemployment to soar. With an uneasy peace in place, output recovered in 1996-99 at high percentage rates from a low base; but output growth slowed in 2000-02. Part of the lag in output was made up in 2003-04. National-level statistics are limited. Moreover, official data do not capture the large share of black market activity. The konvertibilna marka (convertible mark or BAM)- the national currency introduced in 1998 - is now pegged to the euro, and the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina has dramatically increased its reserve holdings. Implementation of privatization, however, has been slow, and local entities only reluctantly support national-level institutions. Banking reform accelerated in 2001 as all the Communist-era payments bureaus were shut down. The country receives substantial amounts of reconstruction assistance and humanitarian aid from the international community but will have to prepare for an era of declining assistance.
GDP
purchasing power parity - $24.31 billion (2003 est.)
GDP - real growth rate
3.5% (2003 est.)
GDP - per capita
purchasing power parity - $6,100 (2003 est.)
GDP - composition by sector
agriculture: 13%
industry: 40.9%
services: 46.1% (2001 est.)
Population below poverty line
NA (2004 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share
lowest 10%: NA
highest 10%: NA
Inflation rate
0.9% (2003 est.)
Labor force
1.026 million (2001)
Labor force - by occupation
agriculture NA, industry NA, services NA
Unemployment rate
40% (2002 est.)
Budget
revenues: $3.271 billion
expenditures: $3.242 billion, including capital expenditures of NA (2003 est.)
Agriculture - products
wheat, corn, fruits, vegetables; livestock
Industries
steel, coal, iron ore, lead, zinc, manganese, bauxite, vehicle assembly, textiles, tobacco products, wooden furniture, tank and aircraft assembly, domestic appliances, oil refining (2001)
Industrial production growth rate
5.5% (2003 est.)
Electricity - production
9.979 billion kWh (2001)
Electricity - consumption
8.116 billion kWh (2001)
Electricity - exports
2.569 billion kWh (2001)
Electricity - imports
1.405 billion kWh (2001)
Oil - production
0 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil - consumption
20,000 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil - exports
NA (2001)
Oil - imports
NA (2001)
Natural gas - production
0 cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - consumption
300 million cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - exports
0 cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - imports
300 million cu m (2001 est.)
Current account balance
$-2.195 billion (2003)
Exports
$1.28 billion f.o.b. (2003 est.)
Exports - commodities
metals, clothing, wood products
Exports - partners
Italy 28.7%, Croatia 18.3%, Germany 17.1%, Austria 9.2%, Slovenia 7.1% (2003)
Imports
$4.7 billion f.o.b. (2003 est.)
Imports - commodities
machinery and equipment, chemicals, fuels, foodstuffs
Imports - partners
Croatia 24.5%, Slovenia 14.7%, Germany 13.7%, Italy 12.2%, Hungary 7.8%, Austria 6.7% (2003)
Reserves of foreign exchange & gold
$1.796 billion (2003)
Debt - external
$3.5 billion (2003)
Currency
marka (BAM)
Currency code
BAM
Exchange rates
marka per US dollar - 1.7329 (2003), 1.7329 (2002), 2.1857 (2001), 2.1244 (2000), 1.8371 (1999)
