Economy Of Lesotho
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Economy overview
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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, but the government has 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, also generating royalties for Lesotho. 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 and a rapidly growing apparel-assembly sector. 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
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purchasing power parity - $5.583 billion (2004 est.)
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GDP - real growth rate
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4% (2004 est.)
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GDP - per capita
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purchasing power parity - $3,000 (2004 est.)
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GDP - composition by sector
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agriculture: 15.3%
industry: 43.3%
services: 41.4% (2004 est.)
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Investment gross fixed
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34.1% of GDP (2004 est.)
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Population below poverty line
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49% (1999)
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Household income or consumption by percentage share
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lowest 10%: 0.9%
highest 10%: 43.4%
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Distribution of family income - Gini index
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56 (1986-87)
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Inflation rate consumer prices
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6.1% (2004 est.)
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Labor force
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838,000 (2000)
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Labor force by occupation
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86% of resident population engaged in subsistence agriculture; roughly 35% of the active male wage earners work in South Africa
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Unemployment rate
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45% (2002)
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Budget
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revenues: $625.4 million
expenditures: $675.2 million, including capital expenditures of $15 million (2004 est.)
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Public debt
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Agriculture products
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corn, wheat, pulses, sorghum, barley; livestock
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Industries
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food, beverages, textiles, apparel assembly, handicrafts; construction; tourism
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Industrial production growth rate
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15.5% (1999)
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Electricity production
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0 kWh NA kWh; note - electricity supplied by South Africa (2001)
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Electricity production by source
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Electricity consumption
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40 million kWh (2001)
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Electricity exports
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0 kWh (2001)
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Electricity imports
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40 million kWh; note - electricity supplied by South Africa (2001)
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Oil production
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0 bbl/day (2001 est.)
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Oil consumption
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1,500 bbl/day (2001)
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Oil exports
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NA (2001)
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Oil imports
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NA (2001)
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Oil proved reserves
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Natural gas production
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Natural gas consumption
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Natural gas exports
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Natural gas imports
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Natural gas proved reserves
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Current account balance
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$-112 million (2004 est.)
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Exports
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$450 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)
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Exports commodities
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manufactures 75% (clothing, footwear, road vehicles), wool and mohair, food and live animals (2000)
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Exports partners
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US 97.6%, Canada 1.5%, France 0.5% (2003)
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Imports
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$661 million f.o.b. (2003 est.)
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Imports commodities
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food; building materials, vehicles, machinery, medicines, petroleum products (2000)
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Imports partners
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Hong Kong 36.6%, Taiwan 36.2%, China 12%, Germany 9.9% (2003)
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Reserves of foreign exchange gold
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$460 million (2004 est.)
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Debt external
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$735 million (2002)
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Economic aid recipient
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$41.5 million (2000)
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Currency
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loti (LSL); South African rand (ZAR)
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Currency code
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LSL; ZAR
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Exchange rates
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maloti per US dollar - 7.5648 (2003), 10.5407 (2002), 8.6092 (2001), 6.9398 (2000), 6.1095 (1999)
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Fiscal year
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1 April - 31 March
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Applied Language Solutions offer English to Sesotho Translation , English Translation , English to Zulu Translation , English to Xhosa Translation .
This information was reproduced in part from the CIA World Fact book.
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