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Guyana (continued)  financial agencies, seeks to reduce its payment arrears and to raise new funds. The government's stabilization program—aimed at establishing realistic exchange rates, reasonable price stability, and a resumption of growth—requires considerable public administrative abilities and continued patience by consumers during a long incubation period.

GDP: $323 million, per capita $420; real growth rate -3.0% (1988 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 35% (1988 est.)

Unemployment rate: NA%

Budget: revenues $173 million; expenditures $414 million, including capital expenditures of $75 million (1988 est.)

Exports: $215 million (f.o.b., 1988 est.) commodities—bauxite, sugar, rice, shrimp, gold, molasses, timber, rum; partners—UK 37%, US 12%, Canada 10.6%, CARICOM 4.8% (1986)

Imports: $216 million (c.i.f., 1988 est.); commodities—manufactures machinery, food, petroleum; partners—CARICOM 41%, US 18%, UK 9%, Canada 3% (1984)

External debt: $1.8 billion, including arrears (December 1988)

Industrial production: growth rate -5.0% (1988 est.)

Electricity: 221,000 kW capacity; 583 million kWh produced, 760 kWh per capita (1989)

Industries: bauxite mining, sugar, rice milling, timber, fishing (shrimp), textiles, gold mining

Agriculture: most important sector, accounting for 25% of GDP and over 50% of exports; sugar and rice are key crops; development potential exists for fishing and forestry; not self-sufficient in food, especially wheat, vegetable oils, and animal products

Aid: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-88), $109 million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-87), $234 million; Communist countries (1970-88), $242 million

Currency: Guyanese dollar (plural—dollars); 1 Guyanese dollar (G$) = 100 cents

Exchange rates: Guyanese dollars (G$) per US$1—33.0000 (January 1990), 27.159 (1989), 10.000 (1988), 9.756 (1987), 4.272 (1986), 4.252 (1985)

Fiscal year: calendar year

Communications

Railroads: 187 km total, all single track 0.914-meter gauge

Highways: 7,665 km total; 550 km paved, 5,000 km gravel, 1,525 km earth, 590 km unimproved

Inland waterways: 6,000 km total of navigable waterways; Berbice, Demerara, and Essequibo Rivers are navigable by ocean-going vessels for 150 km, 100 km, and 80 km, respectively

Ports: Georgetown

Civil air: 5 major transport aircraft

Airports: 66 total, 63 usable; 5 with permanent-surface runways; none with runways over 2,439 m; 12 with runways 1,220-2,439 m

Telecommunications: fair system with radio relay network; over 27,000 telephones; tropospheric scatter link to Trinidad; stations—4 AM, 3 FM, no TV, 1 shortwave; 1 Atlantic Ocean INTELSAT earth station

Defense Forces

Branches: Guyana Defense Force (including Maritime Corps and Air Corps), Guyana Police Force, Guyana People's Militia, Guyana National Service

Military manpower: males 15-49, 201,104; 152,958 fit for military service

Defense expenditures: 4.3% of GDP, or $13.8 million (1988 est.)  Haiti



Geography

Total area: 27,750 km²; land area: 27,560 km²

Comparative area: slightly larger than Maryland

Land boundary: 275 km with the Dominican Republic

Coastline: 1,771 km

Maritime claims:
 * Contiguous zone: 24 nm
 * Continental shelf: to depth of exploitation
 * Extended economic zone: 200 nm
 * Territorial sea: 12 nm

Disputes: claims US-administered Navassa Island

Climate: tropical; semiarid where mountains in east cut off trade winds

Terrain: mostly rough and mountainous

Natural resources: bauxite

Land use: 20% arable land; 13% permanent crops; 18% meadows and pastures; 4% forest and woodland; 45% other; includes 3% irrigated

Environment: lies in the middle of the hurricane belt and subject to severe storms from June to October; occasional flooding and earthquakes; deforestation

Note: shares island of Hispaniola with Dominican Republic

People

Population: 6,142,141 (July 1990), growth rate 2.3% (1990)

Birth rate: 45 births/1,000 population (1990)

Death rate: 16 deaths/1,000 population (1990)

Net migration rate: -6 migrants/1,000 population (1990)

Infant mortality rate: 107 deaths/1,000 live births (1990)

Life expectancy at birth: 52 years male, 55 years female (1990)  132