The 2002 CIA World Factbook. United States. Central Intelligence Agency
of bananas have hurt the agricultural sector. The government continues to grapple with its large deficit and massive internal debt and with the need to modernize the state-owned electricity and telecommunications sector.
GDP: purchasing power parity - $31.9 billion (2001 est.)
GDP - real growth rate: 0.3% (2001 est.)
GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $8,500 (2001 est.)
GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 11% industry: 37% services: 52% (2000)
Population below poverty line: 20.6% (1999 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: 1.7% highest 10%: 34.6% (2001)
Distribution of family income - Gini index: 45.9 (1997)
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 12.1% (2001 est.)
Labor force: 1.9 million (1999)
Labor force - by occupation: agriculture 20%, industry 22%, services 58% (1999 est.)
Unemployment rate: 5.2% (2000 est.)
Budget: revenues: $1.91 billion expenditures: $2.35 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (2000 est.)
Industries: microprocessors, food processing, textiles and clothing, construction materials, fertilizer, plastic products
Industrial production growth rate: -2.1% (2001 est.)
Electricity - production: 6.887 billion kWh (2000)
Electricity - production by source: fossil fuel: 1.15% hydro: 82.56% other: 16.29% (2000) nuclear: 0%
Electricity - consumption: 5.895 billion kWh (2000)
Electricity - exports: 532 million kWh (2000)
Electricity - imports: 22 million kWh (2000)
Agriculture - products: coffee, pineapples, bananas, sugar, corn, rice, beans, potatoes; beef; timber
Exports: $5 billion (2001)
Exports - commodities: coffee, bananas, sugar; pineapples; textiles, electronic components, medical equipment
Exports - partners: US 51.8%, EU 20%, Central America 10.6%, Puerto
Rico 2.8%, Mexico 1.7% (2000)
Imports: $6.5 billion (2001)
Imports - commodities: raw materials, consumer goods, capital equipment, petroleum
Imports - partners: US 53.2%, EU 10.3%, Mexico 6.2%, Venezuela 5.3%,
Central America 4.9% (2000)
Debt - external: $4.6 billion (2001 est.)
Currency: Costa Rican colon (CRC)
Currency code: CRC
Exchange rates: Costa Rican colones per US dollar - 343.08 (January 2002), 328.87 (2001), 308.19 (2000), 285.68 (1999), 257.23 (1998), 232.60 (1997)
Fiscal year: calendar year
Communications Costa Rica
Telephones - main lines in use: 450,000 (1998) note: 584,000 installed in 1997, but only about 450,000 were in use in 1998
Telephones - mobile cellular: 143,000 (2000)
Telephone system: very good domestic telephone service domestic: and coaxial cable link rural areas; Internet service is available international: connected to Central American Microwave System; satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean); two submarine cables (1999)
Radio broadcast stations: AM 50, FM 43, shortwave 19 (1998)
Radios: 980,000 (1997)
Television broadcast stations: 6 (plus 11 repeaters) (1997)
Televisions: 525,000 (1997)
Internet country code: .cr
Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 3 (of which only one is legal) (2000)
Internet users: 250,000 (2001)
Transportation Costa Rica
Railways: total: 950 km narrow gauge: 950 km 1.067-m gauge (260 km electrified) (2000 est.)
Highways: total: 37,273 km paved: 7,827 km unpaved: 29,446 km (1998 est.)
Waterways: 730 km (seasonally navigable)
Pipelines: petroleum products 176 km
Ports and harbors: Caldera, Golfito, Moin, Puerto Limon, Puerto Quepos,
Puntarenas
Merchant marine: 1 ship (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 1,716 GRT/NA DWT ships by type: Airports: 152 (2001)
Airports - with paved runways: total: 29 2,438 to 3,047 m: 2 1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 914 to 1,523 m: 19 under 914 m: 7 (2001)
Airports - with unpaved runways: total: 123 914 to 1,523 m: 28 under 914 m: 95 (2001)
Military Costa Rica
Military branches: no regular indigenous military forces; Air Section,
Ministry of Public Forces (Fuerza Publica)
Military manpower - military age: 18 years of age (2002 est.)
Military manpower - availability: males age 15-49: 1,058,283 (2002 est.)
Military manpower - fit for military service: males age 15-49: 707,927 (2002 est.)
Military manpower - reaching military age annually: males: 39,411 (2002 est.)
Military expenditures - dollar figure: $69 million (FY99)
Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 1.6% (FY99)
Transnational Issues Costa Rica
Disputes - international: legal dispute over navigational rights of
Rio San Juan on border with Nicaragua
Illicit drugs: transshipment country for cocaine and heroin from South America; illicit production of cannabis on small, scattered plots; domestic cocaine consumption is rising, particularly crack cocaine
This page was last updated on 1 January 2002
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Central African Republic
Introduction
Central African Republic
Background: The former French colony of Ubangi-Shari became the Central African Republic upon independence in 1960. After three tumultuous decades of misrule - mostly by military governments - a civilian government was installed in 1993.
Geography Central African Republic
Location: Central Africa, north of Democratic Republic of the Congo
Geographic coordinates: 7 00 N, 21 00 E
Map references: Africa
Area: total: 622,984 sq km water: 0 sq km land: 622,984 sq km
Area - comparative: slightly smaller than Texas
Land boundaries: total: 5,203 km border countries: Cameroon 797 km, Chad 1,197 km, Democratic Republic of the Congo 1,577 km, Republic of the Congo 467 km, Sudan 1,165 km
Coastline: 0 km (landlocked)
Maritime claims: none (landlocked)
Climate: tropical; hot, dry winters; mild to hot, wet summers
Terrain: vast, flat to rolling, monotonous plateau; scattered hills in northeast and southwest
Elevation extremes: lowest point: Oubangui River 335 m highest point:
Mont Ngaoui 1,420 m
Natural resources: diamonds, uranium, timber, gold, oil, hydropower
Land use: arable land: 3% permanent