Short facts about the economy in Togo

Economy - overview:

This small sub-Saharan economy is heavily dependent on both commercial and subsistence agriculture, which provides employment for 65% of the labor force. Some basic foodstuffs must still be imported. Together, cocoa, coffee, and cotton generate some 40% of export earnings, with cotton being the most significant cash crop despite falling prices on the world market. In the industrial sector, phosphate mining is by far the most important activity. Togo is the world's fourth largest producer, and geological advantages keep production costs low. The recently privatized mining operation, Office Togolais des Phosphates (OTP), is slowly recovering from a steep fall in prices in the early 1990's, but continues to face the challenge of tough foreign competition, exacerbated by weakening demand. Togo serves as a regional commercial and trade center. It continues to expand its duty-free export-processing zone (EPZ), launched in 1989, which has attracted enterprises from France, Italy, Scandinavia, the US, India, and China and created jobs for Togolese nationals. The government's decade-long effort, supported by the World Bank and the IMF, to implement economic reform measures, encourage foreign investment, and bring revenues in line with expenditures has stalled. Progress depends on following through on privatization, increased openness in government financial operations, progress towards legislative elections, and possible downsizing of the military, on which the regime has depended to stay in place. Lack of foreign aid, deterioration of the financial sector, energy shortages, and depressed commodity prices continue to constrain economic growth; however, Togo did realize a 3% gain in GDP in 1999. The takeover of the national power company by a Franco-Canadian consortium in 2000 should ease the energy crisis and if successful legislative elections pave the way for increased aid, growth should rise to 5% a year in 2001-02.

GDP:	purchasing power parity - $7.3 billion (2000 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:

3.4% (2000 est.)

GDP - per capita:

purchasing power parity - $1,500 (2000 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:

agriculture:  42% industry:  21% services:  37% (1997)

Population below poverty line:

32% (1989 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:

lowest 10%:  NA% highest 10%:  NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):

2.5% (2000 est.)

Labor force:

1.74 million (1996)

Labor force - by occupation:

agriculture 65%, industry 5%, services 30% (1998 est.)

Unemployment rate:

NA%

Budget:

revenues:  $232 million expenditures:  $252 million, including capital expenditures of $NA (1997 est.)

Industries:

phosphate mining, agricultural processing, cement; handicrafts, textiles, beverages

Industrial production growth rate:

NA%

Electricity - production:

92 million kWh (1999)

Electricity - production by source:

fossil fuel:  97.83% hydro:  2.17% nuclear:  0% other:  0% (1999)

Electricity - consumption:

511.6 million kWh (1999)

Electricity - exports:

0 kWh (1999)

Electricity - imports:

426 million kWh note:  electricity supplied by Ghana (1999)

Agriculture - products:

coffee, cocoa, cotton, yams, cassava (tapioca), corn, beans, rice, millet, sorghum; livestock; fish

Exports:

$336 million (f.o.b., 2000)

Exports - commodities:

cotton, phosphates, coffee, cocoa

Exports - partners:

Nigeria, Brazil, Canada, Philippines (1999)

Imports:

$452 million (f.o.b., 2000)

Imports - commodities:

machinery and equipment, foodstuffs, petroleum products

Imports - partners:

Ghana, China, France, Cote d'Ivoire (1999)

Debt - external:

$1.5 billion (1999)

Economic aid - recipient:

$201.1 million (1995)

Currency:

Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XOF); note - responsible authority is the Central Bank of the West African States

Currency code:

XOF

Exchange rates:

Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XOF) per US dollar - 699.21 (January 2001), 711.98 (2000), 615.70 (1999), 589.95 (1998), 583.67 (1997), 511.55 (1996); note - from 1 January 1999, the XOF is pegged to the euro at a rate of 655.957 XOF per euro

Fiscal year:

calendar year

Source: World Factbook