The economy is dominated by the bauxite industry,
which accounts for more than 15% of GDP and 70% of export earnings.
After assuming power in the fall of 1996, the WIJDENBOSCH government
ended the structural adjustment program of the previous government,
claiming it was unfair to the poorer elements of society. Tax revenues
fell as old taxes lapsed and the government failed to implement new
tax alternatives. By the end of 1997, the allocation of new Dutch
development funds was frozen as Surinamese Government relations with
the Netherlands deteriorated. Economic growth slowed in 1998, with
decline in the mining, construction, and utility sectors. Rampant
government expenditures, poor tax collection, a bloated civil service,
and reduced foreign aid in 1999 contributed to the fiscal deficit,
estimated at 11% of GDP. The government sought to cover this deficit
through monetary expansion, which led to a dramatic increase in
inflation and exchange rate depreciation. Suriname's economic
prospects for the medium term will depend on renewed commitment to
responsible monetary and fiscal policies and to the introduction of
structural reforms to liberalize markets and promote competition.

purchasing power parity - $1.48 billion (1999 est.)

-1% (1999 est.)

purchasing power parity - $3,400 (1999 est.)

agriculture: 13%
industry: 22%
services: 65% (1998 est.)

NA%

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

170% (1999 est.)

100,000

agriculture NA%, industry NA%, services
NA%

20% (1997)

revenues: $393 million
expenditures: $403 million, including capital expenditures of $34
million (1997 est.)

bauxite and gold mining, alumina and aluminum production,
lumbering, food processing, fishing

6.5% (1994 est.)

2.008 billion kWh (1998)

fossil fuel: 24.65%
hydro: 75.35%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (1998)

1.867 billion kWh (1998)

0 kWh (1998)

0 kWh (1998)

paddy rice, bananas, palm kernels, coconuts,
plantains, peanuts; beef, chickens; forest products; shrimp

$406.1 million (f.o.b., 1998)

alumina, aluminum, crude oil, lumber, shrimp
and fish, rice, bananas

Norway 24%, Netherlands 23.8%, US 21.7%, France
7.3%, Japan 4.9%, UK (1998 est.)

$461.4 million (f.o.b., 1998)

capital equipment, petroleum, foodstuffs,
cotton, consumer goods

US 31.2%, Netherlands 17.3%, Trinidad and Tobago
16.1%, Japan 4.3%, UK 4%, Brazil (1998)

$175.6 million (1998 est.)

Netherlands provided $37 million for project
and program assistance, European Development Fund $4 million, Belgium
$2 million (1998)

1 Surinamese guilder, gulden, or florin (Sf.) = 100 cents

Surinamese guilders, gulden, or florins (Sf.) per US$1
- 995 (December 1999), 710 (May 1999), 850 (January 1999); central
bank midpoint rate: 639.50 (1st Qtr 1999), 401.00 (1998), 401.00
(1997), 401.26 (1996), 442.23 (1995); parallel rate: 1,325 (December
1999), 2000 (May 1999), 800 (December 1998), 412 (December 1995)
note: beginning in July 1994, the central bank midpoint exchange rate
was unified and became market determined; during 1998, the exchange
rate splintered into four distinct rates; in January 1999 the
government floated the guilder, but subsequently fixed it when the
black-market rate plunged

calendar year