Economy - overview Burma is a resource-rich country that suffers from 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 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. 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.

GDP purchasing power parity - $63 billion (2001 est.)

GDP - real growth rate 2.3% (2001 est.)

GDP - per capita purchasing power parity - $1,500 (2001 est.)

GDP - composition by sector
agriculture: 42%
industry: 17%
services: 41% (2000 est.)

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 (consumer prices) 20% (2001 est.)

Labor force 23.7 million (1999 est.)

Labor force - by occupation agriculture 65%, industry 10%, services 25% (1999 est.)

Unemployment rate 5.1% (2001 est.)

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

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

Industrial production growth rate NA%

Electricity - production 4.766 billion kWh (2000)

Electricity - production by source
fossil fuel: 83.3%
hydro: 16.7%
other: 0% (2000)
nuclear: 0%

Electricity - consumption 4.432 billion kWh (2000)

Electricity - exports 0 kWh (2000)

Electricity - imports 0 kWh (2000)

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

Exports $1.8 billion (f.o.b., 2001)

Exports - commodities apparel 55%, foodstuffs 18%, wood products 13%, precious stones 2% (2000)

Exports - partners US 27%, India 16%, China 7%, Japan 6%, Singapore 6% (2000 est.)
note: official trade statistics do not include trade in illicit goods - such as narcotics, teak, and gems - or the largely unrecorded border trade with China and Thailand

Imports $2.2 billion (f.o.b., 2001)

Imports - commodities machinery, transport equipment, construction materials, food products, textile fabrics, petroleum products

Imports - partners China 26%, Singapore 23%, South Korea 15%, Japan 10%, Taiwan 10% (2000 est.)

Debt - external $6 billion (FY99/00 est.)

Economic aid - recipient $99 million (FY98/99)

Currency kyat (MMK)

Currency code MMK

Exchange rates kyats per US dollar - official rate - 6.8581 (January 2002), 6.7489 (2001), 6.5167 (2000), 6.2858 (1999), 6.3432 (1998), 6.2418 (1997); kyats per US dollar - black market exchange rate - 435 (yearend 2000)

Fiscal year 1 April - 31 March

NOTE: The information regarding Burma 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 Burma Economy 2002 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Burma Economy 2002 should be addressed to the CIA.