Burma has a mixed economy with private activity
dominant in agriculture, light industry, and transport, and with
substantial state-controlled activity, mainly in energy, heavy
industry, and the rice trade. Government policy in the last 11 years,
1989-99, has aimed at revitalizing the economy after three decades of
tight central planning. Thus, private activity has markedly increased;
foreign investment has been encouraged, so far with moderate success.
State enterprises remain highly inefficient and privatization efforts
have stalled. Published estimates of Burma's foreign trade are greatly
understated because of the volume of black-market trade. A major
ongoing problem is the failure to achieve monetary and fiscal
stability. Burma remains a poor Asian country and living standards for
the majority have not improved over the past decade. The short-term
outlook is for continued sluggish growth because of poor government
planning, internal unrest, minimal foreign investment, and the large
trade deficit.

purchasing power parity - $59.4 billion (1999 est.)

4.6% (1999 est.)

purchasing power parity - $1,200 (1999 est.)

agriculture: 59%
industry: 11%
services: 30% (1997 est.)

23% (1997 est.)

lowest 10%: NA%
highest 10%: NA%

38% (1999 est.)

19.7 million (FY98/99 est.)

agriculture 65%, industry 10%, services
25% (1999 est.)

7.1% (official FY97/98 est.)

revenues: $7.9 billion
expenditures: $12.2 billion, including capital expenditures of $5.7
billion (FY96/97)

agricultural processing; textiles and footwear; wood and
wood products; copper, tin, tungsten, iron; construction materials;
pharmaceuticals; fertilizer

NA%

4.31 billion kWh (1998)

fossil fuel: 61.72%
hydro: 38.28%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (1998)

4.008 billion kWh (1998)

0 kWh (1998)

0 kWh (1998)

paddy rice, corn, oilseed, sugarcane, pulses;
hardwood

$1.2 billion (1998)

pulses and beans, prawns, fish, rice; teak,
opiates

India 13%, China 11%, Singapore 10%, Thailand 8%
(1998)

$2.5 billion (1998)

machinery, transport equipment, construction
materials, food products

Singapore 31%, Japan 12%, Thailand 12%, China 9%,
Malaysia 8% (1998)

$5.9 billion (FY98/99 est.)

$99 million (FY98/99)

1 kyat (K) = 100 pyas

kyats (K) per US$1 - official rate - 6.2665 (January
2000), 6.2858 (1999), 6.3432 (1998), 6.2418 (1997), 5.9176 (1996),
5.6670 (1995); kyats (K) per US$1 - market exchange rate - 330
(yearend 1999)

1 April - 31 March