Economy - overview Trinidad and Tobago has earned a reputation as an excellent investmentsite for international businesses. Successful economic reforms implementedin 1995 are expected to bring an average growth rate of 2% over the next three years, and foreign investment and trade are flourishing. Unemployment - amain cause of the country's socio-economic problems - is high, but has decreasedto its lowest point in five years. The country enjoys a healthy trade surplusof $500 million, yet its heavy dependence on oil and petrochemical pricesmakes its trade balance vulnerable to sudden shifts. Furthermore, Caricom,Trinidad and Tobago's main market, is saturated, provoking some countriesto establish non-tariff trade barriers.

GDP purchasing power parity - $17.1 billion (1996 est.)

GDP - real growth rate 3.1% (1996 est.)

GDP - per capita purchasing power parity - $13,500 (1996 est.)

GDP - composition by sector
agriculture: 2%
industry: 45%
services: 53% (1995 est.)

Inflation rate - consumer price index 5.3% (1995)

Labor force
total: 404,500
by occupation: construction and utilities 13%, manufacturing, mining, and quarrying14%, agriculture 11%, services 62% (1993 est.)

Unemployment rate 16.1% (December 1996)

Budget
revenues: $1.65 billion
expenditures: $1.61 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (1996 est.)

Industries petroleum, chemicals, tourism, food processing, cement, beverage, cottontextiles

Industrial production growth rate 1% (1994 est.)

Electricity - capacity 1.253 million kW (1995)

Electricity - production 4.229 billion kWh (1995)

Electricity - consumption per capita 2,885 kWh (1995 est.)

Agriculture - products cocoa, sugarcane, rice, citrus, coffee, vegetables; poultry

Exports
total value : $2.3 billion (f.o.b., 1996)
commodities: petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals, steel products, fertilizer,sugar, cocoa, coffee, citrus, flowers
partners: US 48%, Caricom countries 15%, Latin America 9%, EU 5% (1994)

Imports
total value: $1.8 billion (c.i.f., 1996)
commodities: machinery, transportation equipment, manufactured goods, food, liveanimals
partners: US 47.7%, Venezuela 10%, UK 8.3%, other EU 8% (1994)

Debt - external $1.67 billion (1996 est.)

Economic aid
recipient: ODA, $10 million (1993)

Currency 1 Trinidad and Tobago dollar (TT$) = 100 cents

Exchange rates Trinidad and Tobago dollars (TT$) per US$1 - 6.1791 (January 1997),6.0051 (1996), 5.9478 (1995), 5.9249 (1994), 5.3511 (1993), 4.2500 (1992)

Fiscal year calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Trinidad and Tobago on this page is re-published from the 1997 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Trinidad and Tobago Economy 1997 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Trinidad and Tobago Economy 1997 should be addressed to the CIA.