The 1996 CIA World Factbook. United States. Central Intelligence Agency
population, especially those living in urban areas, continue to depend on humanitarian aid to meet basic food requirements. Unemployment remains a severe problem accounting for approximately one-fifth of the work force. Now that sanctions on Serbia have been suspended, the falloff in hard currency earnings from smuggling will aggravate unemployment problems. Growth is expected to continue in 1996, but could falter if workers' remittances from Greece are reduced or foreign assistance declines.
GDP: purchasing power parity - $4.1 billion (1995 est.)
GDP real growth rate: 6% (1995 est.)
GDP per capita: $1,210 (1995 est.)
GDP composition by sector: agriculture: 55% industry: NA% services: NA% (1995 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 16% (1994 est.)
Labor force: 1.692 million (1994 est.) (including 352,000 emigrant workers and 261,000 domestically unemployed) by occupation (of those domestically employed): agriculture (nearly all private) 49.5%, private sector 22.2%, state (nonfarm) sector 28.3% (including state-owned industry 7.8%)
Unemployment rate: 19% (1994 est.)
Budget:
revenues: $486.3 million
expenditures: $550.4 million, including capital expenditures of $124
million (1994)
Industries: food processing, textiles and clothing; lumber, oil,
cement, chemicals, mining, basic metals, hydropower
Industrial production growth rate: 6% (1995 est.)
Electricity: capacity: 1,662,000 kW production: 3.9 billion kWh consumption per capita: 1,219 kWh (1994 est.)
Agriculture: wide range of temperate-zone crops and livestock
Illicit drugs: transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin transiting the Balkan route and cocaine from South America destined for Western Europe; limited opium production
Exports: $141 million (f.o.b., 1994 est.) commodities: asphalt, metals and metallic ores, electricity, crude oil, vegetables, fruits, tobacco partners: Italy, US, Greece, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
Imports: $601 million (f.o.b., 1993 est.) commodities: machinery, consumer goods, grains partners: Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
External debt: $977 million (1994 est.)
Economic aid: recipient: ODA, $NA
Currency: 1 lek (L) = 100 qintars
Exchange rates: leke (L) per US$1 - 95.65 (January 1996), 100.00
(January 1995), 99.00 (January 1994), 97.00 (January 1993), 50.00
(January 1992), 25.00 (September 1991)
Fiscal year: calendar year
Transportation———————
Railways: total: 670 km standard gauge: 670 km 1.435-m gauge (1995)
Highways: total: 18,450 km paved: 17,450 km unpaved: 1,000 km (1991 est.)
Waterways: 43 km plus Albanian sections of Lake Scutari, Lake
Ohrid, and Lake Prespa (1990)
Pipelines: crude oil 145 km; petroleum products 55 km; natural gas
64 km (1991)
Ports: Durres, Sarande, Shengjin, Vlore
Merchant marine:
total: 11 cargo ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 52,967 GRT/76,887
DWT (1995 est.)
Airports:
total: 11
with paved runways 2 438 to 3 047 m: 3
with paved runways 914 to 1 523 m: 2
with unpaved runways over 3 047 m: 2
with unpaved runways 2 438 to 3 047 m: 1
with unpaved runways 1 524 to 2 437 m: 1
with unpaved runways 914 to 1 523 m: 2 (1994 est.)
Communications———————
Telephones: 55,000
Telephone system:
domestic: obsolete wire system; no longer provides a telephone for
every village; in 1992, following the fall of the communist
government, peasants cut the wire to about 1,000 villages and used
it to build fences
international: inadequate; international traffic carried by
microwave radio relay from the Tirane exchange to Italy and Greece
Radio broadcast stations: AM 17, FM 1, shortwave 0
Radios: 577,000 (1991 est.)
Television broadcast stations: 9
Televisions: 300,000 (1993 est.)
Defense———
Branches: Army, Navy, Air and Air Defense Forces, Interior
Ministry Troops, Border Guards
Manpower availability: males age 15–49: 723,231 males fit for military service: 588,304 males reach military age (19) annually: 29,340 (1996 est.)
Defense expenditures: exchange rate conversion - $45 million, 2.5% of GDP (1995)
======================================================================
@Algeria———
Map—
Location: 28 00 N, 3 00 E—Northern Africa, bordering the
Mediterranean Sea, between Morocco and Tunisia
Flag——
Description: two equal vertical bands of green (hoist side) and white with a red, five-pointed star within a red crescent; the crescent, star, and color green are traditional symbols of Islam (the state religion)
Geography————
Location: Northern Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea,
between Morocco and Tunisia
Geographic coordinates: 28 00 N, 3 00 E
Map references: Africa
Area:
total area: 2,381,740 sq km
land area: 2,381,740 sq km
comparative area: slightly less than 3.5 times the size of Texas
Land boundaries:
total: 6,343 km
border countries: Libya 982 km, Mali 1,376 km, Mauritania 463 km,
Morocco 1,559 km, Niger 956 km, Tunisia 965 km, Western Sahara 42 km
Coastline: 998 km
Maritime claims: exclusive fishing zone: 32–52 nm territorial sea: 12 nm
International disputes: part of southeastern region claimed by
Libya; land boundary dispute with Tunisia settled in 1993
Climate: arid to semiarid; mild, wet winters with hot, dry summers
along coast; drier with cold winters and hot summers on high
plateau; sirocco is a hot, dust/sand-laden wind especially common in
summer
Terrain: mostly high plateau and desert; some mountains; narrow,
discontinuous coastal plain
lowest point: Chott Melrhir −40 m
highest point: