| Introduction - Lesotho: |
| Location - Lesotho: |
| People - Lesotho: |
| Government - Lesotho: |
| Economy - Lesotho: |
Economy overview | Small, landlocked, and mountainous, Lesotho relies on remittances from miners employed in South Africa and customs duties from the Southern Africa Customs Union for the majority of government revenue. However, the government has recently strengthened its tax system to reduce dependency on customs duties. Completion of a major hydropower facility in January 1998 now permits the sale of water to South Africa and also generates royalties for Lesotho. Lesotho produces about 90% of its own electrical power needs. As the number of mineworkers has declined steadily over the past several years, a small manufacturing base has developed based on farm products that support the milling, canning, leather, and jute industries, as well as a rapidly expanding apparel-assembly sector. The latter has grown significantly mainly due to Lesotho qualifying for the trade benefits contained in the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act. The economy is still primarily based on subsistence agriculture, especially livestock, although drought has decreased agricultural activity. The extreme inequality in the distribution of income remains a major drawback. Lesotho has signed an Interim Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility with the IMF. |
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Gdp purchasing power parity | $5.327 billion (2006 est.) |
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Gdp official exchange rate | $1.437 billion (2006 est.) |
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Gdp real growth rate | 3% (2006 est.) |
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Gdp per capita ppp | $2,600 (2006 est.) |
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Gdp composition by sector | agriculture: 16.1%
industry: 43%
services: 40.9% (2006 est.) |
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Labor force | 838,000 (2000) |
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Labor force by occupation | agriculture: 86% of resident population engaged in subsistence agriculture; roughly 35% of the active male wage earners work in South Africa
industry and services: 14% |
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Unemployment rate | 45% (2002) |
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Population below poverty line | 49% (1999) |
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Household income or consumption by percentage share | lowest 10%: 0.9%
highest 10%: 43.4% |
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Distribution of family income gini index | 63.2 (1995) |
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Inflation rate consumer prices | 5% (2006 est.) |
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Investment gross fixed | 32% of GDP (2006 est.) |
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Budget | revenues: $778.9 million
expenditures: $734.7 million; including capital expenditures of $NA (2006 est.) |
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Agriculture products | corn, wheat, pulses, sorghum, barley; livestock |
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Industries | food, beverages, textiles, apparel assembly, handicrafts, construction, tourism |
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Industrial production growth rate | 15.5% (1999) |
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Electricity production | 250 million kWh; note - electricity supplied by South Africa (2004) |
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Electricity consumption | 244.5 million kWh (2004) |
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Electricity exports | 0 kWh (2004) |
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Electricity imports | 12 million kWh; note - electricity supplied by South Africa (2004) |
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Oil production | 0 bbl/day (2004 est.) |
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Oil consumption | 1,400 bbl/day (2004) |
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Oil exports | NA bbl/day |
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Oil imports | NA bbl/day |
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Oil proved reserves | 0 bbl |
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Natural gas production | 0 cu m (2004 est.) |
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Natural gas consumption | 0 cu m (2004 est.) |
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Current account balance | -$75.44 million (2006 est.) |
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Exports | $779.1 million f.o.b. (2006 est.) |
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Exports commodities | manufactures 75% (clothing, footwear, road vehicles), wool and mohair, food and live animals (2000) |
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Exports partners | Hong Kong 29.6%, China 24%, Taiwan 22.3%, Germany 5.7%, India 5.5% (2006) |
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Imports | $1.401 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.) |
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Imports commodities | food; building materials, vehicles, machinery, medicines, petroleum products |
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Imports partners | US 83.8%, Belgium 12.7%, Canada 2.4% (2006) |
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Reserves of foreign exchange and gold | $528.2 million (2006 est.) |
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Debt external | $735 million (2002) |
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Economic aid recipient | $41.5 million (2000) |
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Currency code | loti (LSL); South African rand (ZAR) |
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Exchange rates | maloti per US dollar - 6.85 (2006), 6.3593 (2005), 6.4597 (2004), 7.5648 (2003), 10.541 (2002) |
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| Communications - Lesotho: |
| Transportation - Lesotho: |
| Military - Lesotho: |
This page was last updated on 16 September, 2007
