Economy
Economic overview:
The Gambia has no important mineral or other natural resources and has a limited agricultural base. About 75% of the population is engaged in crop production and livestock raising. Small-scale manufacturing activity features the processing of peanuts, fish, and hides. A sustained structural adjustment program, including a liberalized trade policy, had fostered a respectable 4% annual rate of growth in 1990-93. Reexport trade normally constitutes one-third of economic activity; however, border closures associated with Senegal's monetary crisis in late 1993 led to a halving of reexport trade, reducing government revenues in turn. The 50% devaluation of the CFA franc in January 1994 has made Senegalese goods more competitive and apparently prompted a relaxation of Senegalese controls, paving the way for a comeback in reexports. But, in response to the military's takeover in July 1994, cuts in foreign trade and a decline in tourism have undermined economic growth.
GDP:
purchasing power parity - $1.1 billion (1995 est.)
GDP real growth rate:
2% (1995 est.)
GDP per capita:
$1,100 (1995 est.)
GDP composition by sector:
agriculture:
27%
industry:
15%
services:
58% (1993)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
1.7% (1994)
Labor force:
400,000 (1986 est.)
by occupation:
agriculture 75.0%, industry, commerce, and services 18.9%, government 6.1%
Unemployment rate:
NA%
Budget:
revenues:
$91.4 million
expenditures:
$90 million, including capital expenditures of $NA (FY95/96 est.)
Industries:
processing peanuts, fish, and hides; tourism; beverages; agricultural machinery assembly, woodworking, metalworking; clothing
Industrial production growth rate:
NA%
Electricity:
capacity:
30,000 kW
production:
70 million kWh
consumption per capita:
64 kWh (1993)
Agriculture:
peanuts, millet, sorghum, rice, corn, cassava (tapioca), palm kernels; cattle, sheep, goats; forest and fishing resources not fully exploited
Exports:
$35 million (f.o.b., 1994 est.)
commodities:
peanuts and peanut products, fish, cotton lint, palm kernels
partners:
Japan 60%, Europe 29%, Africa 5%, US 1%, other 5% (1989)
Imports:
$209 million (f.o.b., 1994 est.)
commodities:
foodstuffs, manufactures, raw materials, fuel, machinery and transport equipment
partners:
Europe 57%, Asia 25%, USSR and Eastern Europe 9%, US 6%, other 3% (1989)
External debt:
$386 million (1993 est.)
Economic aid:
recipient:
ODA, $NA
Currency:
1 dalasi (D) = 100 butut
Exchange rates:
dalasi (D) per US$1 - 9.555 (August 1996), 9.576 (1994), 9.129 (1993), 8.888 (1992), 8.803 (1991)
Fiscal year:
1 July - 30 June
