GDP: purchasing power parity - $84.8 billion (2001 est.)
GDP - real growth rate: 4.1% (2001 est.)
GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $8,200 (2001 est.)
GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 13% industry: 42% services: 45% (2000)
Population below poverty line: 22% (1995 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: 5.1% highest 10%: 20% (1998)
Distribution of family income - Gini index: 21.7 (1998)
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 46.1% (2001 est.)
Labor force: 4.8 million (2000)
Labor force - by occupation: industry and construction NA%, agriculture and forestry NA%, services NA%
Unemployment rate: 2.1% officially registered unemployed (December 2000); large number of underemployed workers
Budget: revenues: $4 billion expenditures: $4.1 billion, including capital expenditures of $180 million (1997 est.)
Industries: metal-cutting machine tools, tractors, trucks, earthmovers, motorcycles, television sets, chemical fibers, fertilizer, textiles, radios, refrigerators
Industrial production growth rate: 5.4% (2001 est.)
Electricity - production: 24.66 billion kWh (2000)
Electricity - production by source: fossil fuel: 99.51% hydro: 0.08% other: 0.41% (2000) nuclear: 0%
Electricity - consumption: 26.78 billion kWh (2000)
Electricity - exports: 300 million kWh (2000)
Electricity - imports: 4.15 billion kWh (2000)
Agriculture - products: grain, potatoes, vegetables, sugar beets, flax; beef, milk
Exports: $7.5 billion (f.o.b., 2001)
Exports - commodities: machinery and equipment, mineral products, chemicals, textiles, foodstuffs, metals
Exports - partners: Russia 51%, Ukraine 8%, Poland 4%, Germany 3% (2000)
Imports: $8.1 billion (f.o.b., 2001)
Imports - commodities: mineral products, machinery and equipment, chemicals, foodstuffs, metals
Imports - partners: Russia 65%, Germany 7%, Poland 3% (2000)
Debt - external: $770 million (2001 est.)
Economic aid - recipient: $194.3 million (1995)
Currency: Belarusian ruble (BYB/BYR)
Currency code: BYB/BYR
Exchange rates: Belarusian rubles per US dollar - 1,590 (yearend 2001), 1,531.000 (November 2001), 876.750 (2000), 248.795 (1999), 46.127 (1998), 26.020 (1997); note - on 1 January 2000, the national currency was redenominated at one new ruble to 2,000 old rubles
Fiscal year: calendar year
Communications Belarus
Telephones - main lines in use: 2.313 million (1997)
Telephones - mobile cellular: 8,167 (1997)
Telephone system: general assessment: the Ministry of Telecommunications controls all telecommunications through its carrier (a joint stock company) Beltelcom which is a monopoly domestic: local - Minsk has a digital metropolitan network and a cellular NMT-450 network; waiting lists for telephones are long; local service outside Minsk is neglected and poor; intercity - Belarus has a partly developed fiber-optic backbone system presently serving at least 13 major cities (1998); Belarus's fiber optics form synchronous digital hierarchy rings through other countries' systems; an inadequate analog system remains operational international: Belarus is a member of the Trans-European Line (TEL), Trans-Asia-Europe (TAE) fiber-optic line, and has access to the Trans-Siberia Line (TSL); three fiber-optic segments provide connectivity to Latvia, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine; worldwide service is available to Belarus through this infrastructure; additional analog lines to Russia; Intelsat, Eutelsat, and Intersputnik earth stations
Radio broadcast stations: AM 28, FM 37, shortwave 11 (1998)
Radios: 3.02 million (1997)
Television broadcast stations: 47 (plus 27 repeaters) (1995)
Televisions: 2.52 million (1997)
Internet country code: .by
Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 23 (2002)
Internet users: 180,000 (2001)
Transportation Belarus
Railways: total: 5,523 km broad gauge: 5,523 km 1.520-m gauge (875 km electrified) (2000 est.)
Highways: total: 98,200 km paved: 66,100 km (includes some all-weather gravel-surfaced roads) unpaved: 32,100 km (these roads are made of unstabilized earth and are difficult to negotiate in wet weather) (1990)
Waterways: NA km; note - Belarus has extensive and widely used canal and river systems
Pipelines: crude oil 1,470 km; refined products 1,100 km; natural gas 1,980 km (1992)
Ports and harbors: Mazyr
Airports: 136 (2001)
Airports - with paved runways: total: 33 over 3,047 m: 2 2,438 to 3,047 m: 19 1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 under 914 m: 11 (2001)
Airports - with unpaved runways: total: 103 over 3,047 m: 3 2,438 to 3,047 m: 10 1,524 to 2,437 m: 11 914 to 1,523 m: 14 under 914 m: 65 (2001)
Military Belarus
Military branches: Army, Air Force (including air defense), Interior
Ministry Troops, Border Guards
Military manpower - military age: 18 years of age (2002 est.)
Military manpower - availability: males age 15-49: 2,744,267 (2002 est.)
Military manpower - fit for military service: males age 15-49: 2,149,873 (2002 est.)
Military manpower - reaching military age annually: males: 86,396 (2002 est.)
Military expenditures - dollar figure: $156 million (FY98)
Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 1% (FY01)
Transnational Issues Belarus
Disputes - international: boundary demarcation with Latvia and Lithuania is pending European Union funding
Illicit drugs: limited cultivation of opium poppy and cannabis, mostly for the domestic market; transshipment point for illicit drugs to and via Russia, and to the Baltics and Western Europe
This page was last updated on 1 January 2002
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Solomon Islands
Introduction
Solomon Islands
Background: The UK established a protectorate over the Solomon Islands in the 1890s. Some of the most bitter fighting of World War II occurred on these islands. Self-government was achieved in 1976 and independence two years later. Ethnic violence, government malfeasance, and endemic crime have undermined stability and civil society.
Geography Solomon Islands
Location: Oceania, group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean, east of Papua