Inflation rate - consumer price index: 4% (1996 est.)
Labor force: total: 30,000 by occupation : commerce and services 82%, agriculture 11%, industry 7% (1983)
Unemployment rate: 5%-10%(1995 est.)
Budget: revenues : $134 million expenditures: $135.4 million, including capital expenditures of $NA (1995)
Industries: tourism, construction, light manufacturing (clothing, alcohol, household appliances)
Industrial production growth rate: NA
Electricity - capacity: 54,000 kW (1995)
Electricity - production: NA kWh
Electricity - consumption per capita: NA kWh
Agriculture - products: cotton, fruits, vegetables, bananas, coconuts, cucumbers, mangoes, sugarcane; livestock
Exports: total value: $45 million (f.o.b., 1996 est.) commodities: petroleum products 48%, manufactures 23%, food and live animals 4%, machinery and transport equipment 17% partners: OECS 26%, Barbados 15%, Guyana 4%, Trinidad and Tobago 2%, US 0.3%
Imports: total value: $350.8 million (f.o.b., 1996 est.) commodities: food and live animals, machinery and transport equipment, manufactures, chemicals, oil partners: US 27%, UK 16%, Canada 4%, OECS 3%, other 50%
Debt - external: $435 million (1996 est.)
Economic aid: $NA
Currency: 1 EC dollar (EC$) = 100 cents
Exchange rates: East Caribbean dollars (EC$) per US$1 - 2.70 (February 1997; fixed rate since 1976)
Fiscal year: 1 April - 31 March
@Antigua and Barbuda:Communications
Telephones: 6,700
Telephone system: domestic: good automatic telephone system international: 1 coaxial submarine cable; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean); tropospheric scatter to Saba (Netherlands Antilles) and Guadeloupe
Radio broadcast stations: AM 4, FM 2, shortwave 2
Radios: NA
Television broadcast stations: 2
Televisions: 28,000 (1993 est.)
@Antigua and Barbuda:Transportation
Railways: total: 77 km narrow gauge: 64 km 0.760-m gauge; 13 km 0.610-m gauge (used almost exclusively for handling sugarcane)
Highways: total: 245 km (1995 est.) paved : NA km unpaved: NA km
Ports and harbors: Saint John's
Merchant marine: total: 419 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 1,965,180 GRT/2,637,644 DWT ships by type: bulk 9, cargo 285, chemical tanker 6, combination bulk 1, container 83, liquefied gas tanker 1, oil tanker 4, refrigerated cargo 11, roll-on/roll-off cargo 19 note : a flag of convenience registry: Germany owns 13 ships, Slovenia 3, Croatia 1, Cyprus 1, and US 1 (1996 est.)
Airports: 3 (1996 est.)
Airports - with paved runways: total: 3 2,438 to 3,047 m: 1 under 914 m : 2 (1996 est.)
Military
Military branches: Royal Antigua and Barbuda Defense Force, Royal
Antigua and Barbuda Police Force (includes the Coast Guard)
Military manpower - availability: males age 15–49: NA
Military manpower - fit for military service: males: NA
Military expenditures - dollar figure: $1.4 million (FY90/91)
Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 1% (FY90/91)
Transnational Issues
Disputes - international: none
Illicit drugs: considered a long-time but relatively minor transshipment point for narcotics bound for the US and Europe and recent transshipment point for heroin from Europe to the US; potentially more significant as a drug money-laundering center ______________________________________________________________________
ARCTIC OCEAN
[Map of Arctic Ocean]
@Arctic Ocean:Geography
Location: body of water mostly north of the Arctic Circle
Geographic coordinates: 90 00 N, 0 00 E
Map references: Arctic Region
Area: total: 14.056 million sq km note: includes Baffin Bay, Barents Sea, Beaufort Sea, Chukchi Sea, East Siberian Sea, Greenland Sea, Hudson Bay, Hudson Strait, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, Northwest Passage, and other tributary water bodies
Area - comparative: slightly less than 1.5 times the size of the US; smallest of the world's four oceans (after Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, and Indian Ocean)
Coastline: 45,389 km
Climate: polar climate characterized by persistent cold and relatively narrow annual temperature ranges; winters characterized by continuous darkness, cold and stable weather conditions, and clear skies; summers characterized by continuous daylight, damp and foggy weather, and weak cyclones with rain or snow
Terrain: central surface covered by a perennial drifting polar icepack that averages about 3 meters in thickness, although pressure ridges may be three times that size; clockwise drift pattern in the Beaufort Gyral Stream, but nearly straight line movement from the New Siberian Islands (Russia) to Denmark Strait (between Greenland and Iceland); the icepack is surrounded by open seas during the summer, but more than doubles in size during the winter and extends to the encircling land masses; the ocean floor is about 50% continental shelf (highest percentage of any ocean) with the remainder a central basin interrupted by three submarine ridges (Alpha Cordillera, Nansen Cordillera, and Lomonsov Ridge)
Elevation extremes: lowest point: Fram Basin −4,665 m highest point: sea level 0 m
Natural resources: sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits, polymetallic nodules, oil and gas fields, fish, marine mammals (seals and whales)
Natural hazards: ice islands occasionally break away from northern Ellesmere Island; icebergs calved from glaciers in western Greenland and extreme northeastern Canada; permafrost in islands; virtually icelocked from October to June; ships subject to superstructure icing from October to May
Environment - current issues: endangered marine species include walruses and whales; fragile ecosystem slow to change and slow to recover from disruptions or damage
Environment - international agreements: party to : none of the selected agreements signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements
Geography - note: major chokepoint is the southern Chukchi Sea (northern access to the Pacific Ocean via the Bering Strait); strategic location between North America and Russia; shortest marine link between the extremes of eastern and western Russia, floating research stations operated by the US and Russia; maximum snow cover in March or April about 20 to 50 centimeters over the frozen ocean; snow cover lasts about 10 months
@Arctic Ocean:Government
Data code: none; the US Government has not approved a standard for hydrographic codes - see the Cross-Reference List of Hydrographic Data Codes appendix
Economy
Economy - overview: Economic activity is limited to the exploitation of natural resources, including petroleum, natural gas, fish, and seals.
@Arctic Ocean:Communications
Telephone system: international: no submarine cables
@Arctic Ocean:Transportation
Ports and harbors: Churchill (Canada), Murmansk (Russia), Prudhoe Bay