Economy (Afghanistan)
=====================


     Overview:
         Fundamentally, Afghanistan is an extremely poor, landlocked country, highly
         dependent on farming (wheat especially) and livestock raising (sheep and
         goats). Economic considerations, however, have played second fiddle to
         political and military upheavals during more than 13 years of war, including
         the nearly 10-year Soviet military occupation (which ended 15 February
         1989). Over the past decade, one-third of the population fled the country,
         with Pakistan sheltering more than 3 million refugees and Iran about 1.3
         million. Another 1 million probably moved into and around urban areas within
         Afghanistan. Although reliable data are unavailable, gross domestic product
         is lower than 12 years ago because of the loss of labor and capital and the
         disruption of trade and transport.
     GDP:
         exchange rate conversion - $3 billion, per capita $200; real growth rate 0%
         (1989 est.)
     Inflation rate (consumer prices):
         over 90% (1991 est.)
     Unemployment rate:
         NA%
     Budget:
         revenues NA; expenditures NA, including capital expenditures of NA
     Exports:
         $236 million (f.o.b., FY91 est.)
       commodities:
         natural gas 55%, fruits and nuts 24%, handwoven carpets, wool, cotton,
         hides, and pelts
       partners:
         mostly former USSR
     Imports:
         $874 million (c.i.f., FY91 est.)
       commodities:
         food and petroleum products
       partners:
         mostly former USSR
     External debt:
         $2.3 billion (March 1991 est.)
     Industrial production:
         growth rate 2.3% (FY91 est.); accounts for about 25% of GDP
     Electricity:
         480,000 kW capacity; 1,450 million kWh produced, 90 kWh per capita (1991)
     Industries:
         small-scale production of textiles, soap, furniture, shoes, fertilizer, and
         cement; handwoven carpets; natural gas, oil, coal, copper
     Agriculture:
         largely subsistence farming and nomadic animal husbandry; cash products -
         wheat, fruits, nuts, karakul pelts, wool, mutton
     Illicit drugs:
         an illicit producer of opium poppy and cannabis for the international drug
         trade; world's second-largest opium producer (after Burma) and a major
         source of hashish
     Economic aid:
         US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $380 million; Western (non-US)
         countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-89), $510 million; OPEC
         bilateral aid (1979-89), $57 million; Communist countries (1970-89), $4.1
         billion; net official Western disbursements (1985-89), $270 million
     Currency:
         afghani (plural - afghanis); 1 afghani (Af) = 100 puls