Economy - overview: | Sudan has turned around a struggling economy with sound economic policies and infrastructure investments, yet it still faces formidable economic problems, starting from its low level of per capita output and extending to its devastating civil stife. From 1997 to date, Sudan has been implementing IMF macroeconomic reforms. In 1999, Sudan began exporting crude oil and in the last quarter of 1999 recorded its first trade surplus, which, along with monetary policy, has stabilized the exchange rate. Increased oil production, revived light industry, and expanded export processing zones helped sustain GDP growth at 6.1% in 2003 and 7% in 2004. Agriculture production remains Sudan's most important sector, employing 80% of the work force and contributing 39% of GDP, but most farms remain rain-fed and susceptible to drought. Chronic instability - including the long-standing civil war between the Muslim north and the Christian/pagan south, the ethnic purges in Darfur, adverse weather, and weak world agricultural prices - ensure that much of the population will remain at or below the poverty line for years. |
| GDP: | purchasing power parity - $70.95 billion (2004 est.) |
| GDP - real growth rate: | 5.9% (2004 est.) |
| GDP - per capita: | purchasing power parity - $1,900 (2004 est.) |
| GDP - composition by sector: | agriculture: 38.7%
industry: 20.3%
services: 41% (2003 est.) |
| Investment (gross fixed): | 14.8% of GDP (2004 est.) |
| Population below poverty line: | NA (2004 est.) |
| Household income or consumption by percentage share: | lowest 10%: NA
highest 10%: NA |
| Inflation rate (consumer prices): | 8.8% (2004 est.) |
| Labor force: | 11 million (1996 est.) |
| Labor force - by occupation: | agriculture 80%, industry and commerce 7%, government 13% (1998 est.) |
| Unemployment rate: | 18.7% (2002 est.) |
| Budget: | revenues: $2.402 billion
expenditures: $2.546 billion, including capital expenditures of $304 million (2004 est.) |
| Public debt: | 87% of GDP (2004 est.) |
| Agriculture - products: | cotton, groundnuts (peanuts), sorghum, millet, wheat, gum arabic, sugarcane, cassava (tapioca), mangos, papaya, bananas, sweet potatoes, sesame; sheep, livestock |
| Industries: | oil, cotton ginning, textiles, cement, edible oils, sugar, soap distilling, shoes, petroleum refining, pharmaceuticals, armaments, automobile/light truck assembly |
| Industrial production growth rate: | 8.5% (1999 est.) |
| Electricity - production: | 2.389 billion kWh (2001) |
| Electricity - consumption: | 2.222 billion kWh (2001) |
| Electricity - exports: | 0 kWh (2001) |
| Electricity - imports: | 0 kWh (2001) |
| Oil - production: | 209,100 bbl/day (2004 est.) |
| Oil - consumption: | 50,000 bbl/day (2001 est.) |
| Oil - exports: | NA (2001) |
| Oil - imports: | NA (2001) |
| Oil - proved reserves: | 631.5 million bbl (2004) |
| Natural gas - proved reserves: | 99.11 billion cu m (2004) |
| Current account balance: | $-718 million (2004 est.) |
| Exports: | $2.45 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.) |
| Exports - commodities: | oil and petroleum products; cotton, sesame, livestock, groundnuts, gum arabic, sugar |
| Exports - partners: | China 40.9%, Saudi Arabia 17.2%, UAE 5.4% (2003) |
| Imports: | $2.383 billion f.o.b. (2003 est.) |
| Imports - commodities: | foodstuffs, manufactured goods, refinery and transport equipment, medicines and chemicals, textiles, wheat |
| Imports - partners: | Saudi Arabia 16.3%, China 14.2%, UK 5%, Germany 4.9%, India 4.8%, France 4.1% (2003) |
| Reserves of foreign exchange & gold: | $847.2 million (2004 est.) |
| Debt - external: | $16.09 billion (2004 est.) |
| Economic aid - recipient: | $172 million (2001) |
| Currency: | Sudanese dinar (SDD) |
| Currency code: | SDD |
| Exchange rates: | Sudanese dinars per US dollar - 260.983 (2003), 263.306 (2002), 258.702 (2001), 257.122 (2000), 252.55 (1999) |
| Fiscal year: | calendar year
Source: CIA World Factbook
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