GDP: purchasing power parity - $4.7 billion (1998 est.)
GDP - real growth rate: -10% (1998 est.)
GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $2,240 (1998 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture:
14%
industry:
42%
services:
44% (1997 est.)
Population below poverty line: 49.2% (1993 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%:
0.9%
highest 10%:
43.4% (1986-87)
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 8% (1998 est.)
Labor force: 689,000 economically active
Labor force - by occupation: 86% of resident population engaged in subsistence agriculture; roughly 35% of the active male wage earners work in South Africa
Unemployment rate: substantial unemployment and underemployment affecting more than half of the labor force (1999 est.)
Budget:
revenues:
$507 million
expenditures:
$487 million, including capital expenditures of $170 million (FY96/97 est.)
Industries: food, beverages, textiles, handicrafts; construction; tourism
Industrial production growth rate: 19.7% (1995)
Electricity - production: 0 kWh (1998)
Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel:
0%
hydro:
0%
nuclear:
0%
other:
0% (1998)
Electricity - consumption: 209 million kWh (1998)
Electricity - exports: 0 kWh (1998)
Electricity - imports: 209 million kWh (1998)
Agriculture - products: corn, wheat?, pulses?, sorghum?, barley?; livestock
Exports: $235 million (f.o.b., 1998 est.)
Exports - commodities: manufactures 75% (clothing, footwear, road vehicles), wool and mohair, food and live animals (1998)
Exports - partners: [South African Customs Union]? 65%, North America 34% (1998)
Imports: $700 million (f.o.b., 1998 est.)
Imports - commodities: food; building materials, vehicles, machinery, medicines, petroleum products (1995)
Imports - partners: South African Customs Union 90%, Asia 7% (1997)
Debt - external: $675 million (1998 est.)
Economic aid - recipient: $123.7 million (1995)
Currency: 1 [loti]] (L) = 100 lisente; note - maloti (M) is the plural form of loti
Exchange rates: maloti (M) per US$1 - 6.12439 (January 2000), 6.10948 (1999), 5.52828 (1998), 4.60796 (1997), 4.29935 (1996), 3.62709 (1995); note - the Basotho loti is at par with the South African rand?
Fiscal year: 1 April - 31 March