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 Flag: three equal horizontal bands of green (top), black, and yellow with a red isosceles triangle based on the hoist side; the black band is edged in white; centered in the triangle is a yellow five-pointed star bearing a crossed rifle and hoe in black superimposed on an open white book

Economy

Overview: One of Africa's poorest countries, with a per capita GDP of little more than $100, Mozambique has failed to exploit the economic potential of its sizable agricultural, hydropower, and transportation resources. Indeed, national output, consumption, and investment declined throughout the first half of the 1980s because of internal disorders, lack of government administrative control, and a growing foreign debt. A sharp increase in foreign aid, attracted by an economic reform policy, has resulted in successive years of economic growth since 1985. Agricultural output, nevertheless, is only at about 75% of its 1981 level, and grain has to be imported. Industry operates at only 20-40% of capacity. The economy depends heavily on foreign assistance to keep afloat.

GDP: $1.6 billion, per capita less than $110; real growth rate 5.0% (1988)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 81.1% (1988)

Unemployment rate: 40.0 (1988)

Budget: revenues $186 million; expenditures $239 million, including capital expenditures of $208 million (1988 est.)

Exports: $100 million (f.o.b., 1988); commodities—shrimp 48%, cashews 21%, sugar 10%, copra 3%, citrus 3%; partners—US, Western Europe, GDR, Japan

Imports: $764 million (c.i.f., 1988), including aid; commodities—food, clothing, farm equipment, petroleum; partners—US, Western Europe, USSR

External debt: $4.4 billion (1988)

Industrial production: growth rate 7% (1989 est.)

Electricity: 2,265,000 kW capacity; 1,740 million kWh produced, 120 kWh per capita (1989)

Industries: food, beverages, chemicals (fertilizer, soap, paints), petroleum products, textiles, nonmetallic mineral products (cement, glass, asbestos), tobacco

Agriculture: accounts for 50% of GDP, over 80% of labor force, and about 90% of exports; cash crops—cotton, cashew nuts, sugarcane, tea, shrimp; other crops—cassava, corn, rice, tropical fruits; not self-sufficient in food

Aid: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-88), $282 million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-87), $3.1 billion; OPEC bilateral aid (1979-89), $37 million; Communist countries (1970-88), $887 million

Currency: metical (plural meticais); 1 metical (Mt) = 100 centavos

Exchange rates: meticais (Mt) per US$1—800 (September 1989), 528.60 (1988), 289.44 (1987), 40.43 (1986), 43.18 (1985)

Fiscal year: calendar year

Communications

Railroads: 3,288 km total; 3,140 km 1.067-meter gauge; 148 km 0.762-meter narrow gauge; Malawi-Nacala, Malawi-Beira, and Zimbabwe-Maputo lines are subject to closure because of insurgency

Highways: 26,498 km total; 4,593 km paved; 829 km gravel, crushed stone, stabilized soil; 21,076 km unimproved earth

Inland waterways: about 3,750 km of navigable routes

Pipelines: 306 km crude oil (not operating); 289 km refined products

Ports: Maputo, Beira, Nacala

Merchant marine: 5 cargo ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 7,806 GRT/12,873 DWT

Civil air: 5 major transport aircraft

Airports: 203 total, 153 usable; 27 with permanent-surface runways; none with runways over 3,659 m; 6 with runways 2,440-3,659 m; 29 with runways 1,220-2,439 m

Telecommunications: fair system of troposcatter, open-wire lines, and radio relay; 57,400 telephones; stations—15 AM, 3 FM, 1 TV; satellite earth stations—1 Atlantic Ocean INTELSAT and 3 domestic

Defense Forces

Branches: Mozambique Armed Forces (including Army, Border Guard, Naval Command, Air Defense Forces)

Military manpower: males 15-49, 3,295,067; 1,892,699 fit for military service

Defense expenditures: 8.4% of GDP (1987)  Namibia



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Geography

Total area: 824,290 km²; land area: 823,290 km²

Comparative area: slightly more than half the size of Alaska

Land boundaries: 3,935 km total; Angola 1,376 km, Botswana 1,360 km, South Africa 966 km, Zambia 233 km

Coastline: 1,489 km

Maritime claims:
 * Exclusive fishing zone: 12 nm
 * Territorial sea: 6 nm

Disputes: short section of boundary with Botswana is indefinite; quadripoint with Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe is in disagreement; possible future claim to South Africa's Walvis Bay

Climate: desert; hot, dry; rainfall sparse and erratic

Terrain: mostly high plateau; Namib Desert along coast; Kalahari Desert in east

Natural resources: diamonds, copper, uranium, gold, lead, tin, zinc, salt, vanadium, natural gas, fish; suspected deposits of coal and iron ore

Land use: 1% arable land; NEGL% permanent crops; 64% meadows and pastures; 22% forest and woodland; 13% other; includes NEGL% irrigated

Environment: inhospitable with very limited natural water resources; desertification

Note: Walvis Bay area is an exclave of South Africa in Namibia

People

Population: 1,452,951 (July 1990), growth rate 5.6% (1990)

Birth rate: 46 births/1,000 population (1990)

Death rate: 10 deaths/1,000 population (1990)

Net migration rate: 20 migrants/1,000 population (1990)  215