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• Overview: 
Many of the white one-seventh of the South African population enjoy incomes, material comforts, and health and educational standards equal to those of Western Europe. In contrast, most of the remaining population suffers from the poverty patterns of the Third World, including unemployment and lack of job skills. The main strength of the economy lies in its rich mineral resources, which provide two-thirds of exports. Economic developments for the remainder of the 1990s will be driven largely by the new government's attempts to improve black living conditions, to set the country on an aggressive export-led growth path, and to cut back the enormous numbers of unemployed. The economy in recent years has absorbed less than 5% of the more than 300,000 workers entering the labor force annually. Local economists estimate that the economy must grow between 5% and 6% in real terms annually to absorb all of the new entrants, much less reduce the accumulated total. 
 
• National product: 
GDP - purchasing power parity - $115.5 billion (1997 est.) 
 
• National product real growth rate: 
1.5%-1.7% (1997-98 est.) 
 
• National product per capita: 
$3.040 (1997 est.) 
 
• Inflation rate (consumer prices): 
9% (1996 est.) 
 
• Unemployment rate: 
30% (1997 est.); an additional 11% underemployment 
 
• Budget: 
 
revenues: 
$26.3 billion 
 
expenditures: 
$34 billion, including capital expenditures of $2.5 billion (FY93/94 est.) 
 
• Exports: 
$25.3 billion (f.o.b., 1996) 
 
commodities: 
gold 27%, other minerals and metals 20%-25%, food 5%, chemicals 3% 
 
partners: 
Italy, Japan, US, Germany, UK, other EU countries, Hong Kong 
 
• Imports: 
$21.4 billion (f.o.b., 1996) 
 
commodities: 
machinery 32%, transport equipment 15%, chemicals 11%, oil, textiles, scientific instruments 
 
partners: 
Germany, US, Japan, UK, Italy 
 
• External debt: 
$18 billion (1996 est.) 
 
• Industrial production: 
growth rate NA%; accounts for about 40% of GDP 
 
• Electricity: 
 
capacity: 
39,750,000 kW 
 
production: 
163 billion kWh 
 
consumption per capita: 
3,482 kWh (1993) 
 
• Industries: 
mining (world's largest producer of platinum, gold, chromium), automobile assembly, metalworking, machinery, textile, iron and steel, chemical, fertilizer, foodstuffs 
 
• Agriculture: 
accounts for about 5% of GDP and 30% of labor force; diversified agriculture, with emphasis on livestock; products - cattle, poultry, sheep, wool, milk, beef, corn, wheat, sugarcane, fruits, vegetables; self-sufficient in food 
 
• Illicit drugs: 
transshipment center for heroin and cocaine; cocaine consumption on the rise; world's largest market for illicit methaqualone, usually imported illegally from India through various east African countries 
 
• Economic aid: 
many aid packages for the new government are still being prepared; current aid pledges include US $600 million over 3 years; UK $150 million over 3 years; Australia $21 million over 3 years; Japan $1.3 billion over 2 years 
 
• Currency: 
1 rand (R) = 100 cents 
 
• Exchange rates: 
rand (R) per US$1 - 3.5389 (January 1995), 3.5490 (1994), 3.2636 (1993), 2.8497 (1992), 2.7563 (1991), 2.5863 (1990) 
 
• Fiscal year: 
1 April - 31 March