Burma

Burma Economy

Economy - overview
Burma is a resource-rich country that suffers from government controls and abject rural poverty. The military regime took steps in the early 1990s to liberalize the economy after decades of failure under the ''Burmese Way to Socialism'', but those efforts have since stalled. Burma has been unable to achieve monetary or fiscal stability, resulting in an economy that suffers from serious macroeconomic imbalances - including a steep inflation rate and an official exchange rate that overvalues the Burmese kyat by more than 100 times the market rate. In addition, most overseas development assistance ceased after the junta suppressed the democracy movement in 1988 and subsequently ignored the results of the 1990 election. A crisis in the private banking sector in early 2003 followed by economic moves against Burma by the United States, the European Union, and Japan - including a US ban on imports from Burma and a Japanese freeze on new bilateral economic aid - further weakened the Burmese economy. Burma is data poor, and official statistics are often dated and inaccurate. Published estimates of Burma's foreign trade are greatly understated because of the size of the black market and border trade - often estimated to be one to two times the official economy. Better relations with foreign countries and relaxed controls at home are needed to promote foreign investment, exports, and tourism. In February 2003, a major banking crisis hit the country's 20 private banks, shutting them down and disrupting the economy. In July and August 2003, the United States imposed a ban on all Burmese imports and a ban on provision of financial services, hampering Burma's ability to obtain foreign exchange. As of January 2004, the largest private banks remained moribund, leaving the private sector with little formal access to credit outside of government contracts.

GDP
purchasing power parity - $74.53 billion (2003 est.)

GDP - real growth rate
-0.5% (2003 est.)

GDP - per capita
purchasing power parity - $1,800 (2003 est.)

GDP - composition by sector
agriculture: 57.2%
industry: 9.6%
services: 33.1% (2003 est.)

Investment
11.8% of GDP (2003)

Population below poverty line
25% (2000 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share
lowest 10%: 2.8%
highest 10%: 32.4% (1998)

Inflation rate
49.7% (2003 est.)

Labor force
22.14 million (2003 est.)

Labor force - by occupation
agriculture 70%, industry 7%, services 23% (2001 est.)

Unemployment rate
4.2% (2003)

Budget
revenues: $7.9 billion
expenditures: $12.2 billion, including capital expenditures of $5.7 billion (FY96/97)

Agriculture - products
rice, pulses, beans, sesame, groundnuts, sugarcane; hardwood; fish and fish products

Industries
agricultural processing; knit and woven apparel; wood and wood products; copper, tin, tungsten, iron; construction materials; pharmaceuticals; fertilizer; cement

Industrial production growth rate
NA

Electricity - production
6.139 billion kWh (2001)

Electricity - consumption
5.709 billion kWh (2001)

Electricity - exports
0 kWh (2001)

Electricity - imports
0 kWh (2001)

Oil - production
18,590 bbl/day (2002 est.)

Oil - consumption
38,000 bbl/day (2001 est.)

Oil - exports
NA (2001)

Oil - imports
NA (2001)

Oil - proved reserves
115 million bbl (1 January 2003)

Natural gas - production
7.35 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - consumption
2.15 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - exports
5.2 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports
0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves
314.4 billion cu m (1 January 2003)

Current account balance
$-35 million (2003)

Exports
$2.434 billion f.o.b. (2003 est.)

Exports - commodities
Clothing, gas, wood products, pulses, beans, fish, rice

Exports - partners
Thailand 31.5%, US 10.2%, India 9.3%, China 5.8%, Japan 4.8% (2003)

Imports
$2.071 billion f.o.b. (2003 est.)

Imports - commodities
Fabric, petroleum products, plastics, machinery, transport equipment, construction materials, crude oil; food products

Imports - partners
China 31.1%, Singapore 22.3%, Thailand 15.1%, South Korea 6.3%, Malaysia 4.8%, Japan 4.3% (2003)

Reserves of foreign exchange & gold
$562 million (2003)

Debt - external
$6.011 billion (2003 est.)

Currency
kyat (MMK)

Currency code
MMK

Exchange rates
kyats per US dollar - 6.0764 (2003), 6.5734 (2002), 6.6841 (2001), 6.5167 (2000), 6.2858 (1999)
note: these are official exchange rates; unofficial exchange rates ranged in 2003 from 100 kyat/US dollar to nearly 1000 kyat/US dollar



- Info Provided by the CIA World Factbook -