Economy - overview:
Burma, a resource-rich country, suffers from pervasive government controls, inefficient economic policies, corruption, and rural poverty. Despite Burma's emergence as a natural gas exporter, socio-economic conditions have deteriorated under the mismanagement of the previous regime. Approximately 32% of the population lives in poverty and Burma is the poorest country in Southeast Asia. The business climate is widely perceived as opaque, corrupt, and highly inefficient. Wealth from country's ample natural resources is concentrated in the hands of an elite group of military leaders and business associates. In 2010-11, the transfer of state assets - especially real estate - to military families under the guise of a privatization policy further widened the gap between the economic elite and the public. The economy suffers from serious macroeconomic imbalances - including multiple official exchange rates that overvalue the Burmese kyat, fiscal deficits, lack of commercial credit further distorted by a non-market interest rate regime, unpredictable inflation, unreliable economic data, and an inability to reconcile national accounts. Burma's poor investment climate - including weak rule of law - hampers the inflow of foreign investment; in recent years, foreign investors have shied away from nearly every sector except for natural gas, power generation, timber, and mining. The exploitation of natural resources does not benefit the population at large. The most productive sectors will continue to be in extractive industries - especially oil and gas, mining, and timber - with the latter two causing significant environmental degradation. Other areas, such as manufacturing, tourism, and services, struggle in the face of poor infrastructure, unpredictable trade policies, undeveloped human resources (the result of neglected health and education systems), endemic corruption, and inadequate access to capital for investment. Private banks still operate under tight domestic and international restrictions, limiting the private sector's access to credit. During the past decade the United States, the European Union, and Canada had imposed financial and economic sanctions on Burma. US sanctions prohibited most financial transactions with Burmese entities, imposed travel bans on senior Burmese military and civilian leaders and others connected to the ruling regime, and banned imports of Burmese products. These sanctions affected the country's fledgling garment industry, isolated the struggling banking sector, and raised the costs of doing business with Burmese companies, particularly firms tied to Burmese regime leaders. Many of these sanctions are being lifted, in response to the new liberalization that is taking place in Burma. Remittances from overseas Burmese workers - who had provided significant financial support for their families - have driven the Ministry of Finance to license domestic banks to carry out overseas operations. In 2011 the government took initial steps toward reforming and opening up the economy by lowering export taxes, easing restrictions on its financial sector, and reaching out to international organizations for assistance. Although the Burmese government has good economic relations with its neighbors, significant improvements in economic governance, the business climate, and the political situation are needed to promote serious foreign investment.
GDP (purchasing power parity): GDP (official exchange rate): GDP - real growth rate: GDP - per capita (PPP): GDP - composition by sector: Labor force: Labor force - by occupation: Unemployment rate: Population below poverty line: Household income or consumption by percentage share: Investment (gross fixed): Budget: Taxes and other revenues: Budget surplus (+) or deficit (-): Inflation rate (consumer prices): Central bank discount rate: Commercial bank prime lending rate: Stock of narrow money: Stock of broad money: Stock of domestic credit: Market value of publicly traded shares: Agriculture - products: Industries: Industrial production growth rate: Current account balance: Exports: Exports - commodities: Exports - partners: Imports: Imports - commodities: Imports - partners: Reserves of foreign exchange and gold: Debt - external: Exchange rates: Fiscal year:
NOTE: 1) The information regarding Burma on this page is re-published from the 2013 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Burma Economy 2013 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Burma Economy 2013 should be addressed to the CIA.
$89.23 billion (2012 est.)
country comparison to the world: 77
note:
data are in 2012 US dollars
[see also: GDP country ranks ]
$54.05 billion (2012 est.)
[see also: GDP (official exchange rate) country ranks ]
6.2% (2012 est.)
country comparison to the world: 36
[see also: GDP - real growth rate country ranks ]
$1,400 (2012 est.)
country comparison to the world: 206
note:
data are in 2012 US dollars
[see also: GDP - per capita country ranks ]
agriculture: 38.8%
[see also: GDP - composition by sector - agriculture country ranks ]
industry:
19.3%
services:
41.8% (2012 est.)
33.41 million (2012 est.)
country comparison to the world: 19
[see also: Labor force country ranks ]
agriculture: 70%
[see also: Labor force - by occupation - agriculture country ranks ]
industry:
7%
services:
23% (2001 est.)
5.4% (2012 est.)
country comparison to the world: 53
[see also: Unemployment rate country ranks ]
32.7% (2007 est.)
[see also: Population below poverty line country ranks ]
lowest 10%: 2.8%
[see also: Household income or consumption by percentage share - lowest 10% country ranks ]
highest 10%:
32.4% (1998)
16.3% of GDP (2012 est.)
country comparison to the world: 131
[see also: Investment (gross fixed) country ranks ]
revenues: $2.234 billion
[see also: Budget revenues country ranks ]
expenditures:
$4.414 billion (2012 est.)
4.1% of GDP (2012 est.)
country comparison to the world: 213
[see also: Taxes and other revenues country ranks ]
-4% of GDP (2012 est.)
country comparison to the world: 132
[see also: Budget surplus (+) or deficit (-) country ranks ]
3.1% (2012 est.)
country comparison to the world: 82
[see also: Inflation rate (consumer prices) country ranks ]
9.95% (31 December 2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 15
[see also: Central bank discount rate country ranks ]
13% (31 December 2012 est.)
country comparison to the world: 32
[see also: Commercial bank prime lending rate country ranks ]
$9.965 billion (31 December 2012 est.)
country comparison to the world: 77
note:
this number reflects the vastly overvalued official exchange rate of 5.38 kyat per dollar in 2007; at the unofficial black market rate of 1,305 kyat per dollar for 2007, the stock of kyats would equal only US$2.465 billion and Burma's velocity of money (the number of times money turns over in the course of a year) would be six, in line with the velocity of money for other countries in the region; in January-February 2011, the unofficial black market rate averaged 890 kyat per dollar
[see also: Stock of narrow money country ranks ]
$2.178 trillion (31 December 2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 8
[see also: Stock of broad money country ranks ]
$15.66 billion (31 December 2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 89
[see also: Stock of domestic credit country ranks ]
$NA
[see also: Market value of publicly traded shares country ranks ]
rice, pulses, beans, sesame, groundnuts, sugarcane; fish and fish products; hardwood
agricultural processing; wood and wood products; copper, tin, tungsten, iron; cement, construction materials; pharmaceuticals; fertilizer; oil and natural gas; garments, jade and gems
4.3% (2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 76
[see also: Industrial production growth rate country ranks ]
-$891.2 million (2012 est.)
country comparison to the world: 108
[see also: Current account balance country ranks ]
$8.529 billion (2012 est.)
country comparison to the world: 98
note:
official export figures are grossly underestimated due to the value of timber, gems, narcotics, rice, and other products smuggled to Thailand, China, and Bangladesh
[see also: Exports country ranks ]
natural gas, wood products, pulses, beans, fish, rice, clothing, jade and gems
Thailand 36.7%, China 18.8%, India 14.1%, Japan 6.6% (2011)
$7.137 billion (2012 est.)
country comparison to the world: 111
note:
import figures are grossly underestimated due to the value of consumer goods, diesel fuel, and other products smuggled in from Thailand, China, Malaysia, and India
[see also: Imports country ranks ]
fabric, petroleum products, fertilizer, plastics, machinery, transport equipment; cement, construction materials, crude oil; food products, edible oil
China 38.8%, Thailand 22.6%, Singapore 9.7%, South Korea 5.4%, Malaysia 4.5%, Japan 4.1% (2011)
$4.107 billion (31 December 2012 est.)
country comparison to the world: 97
[see also: Reserves of foreign exchange and gold country ranks ]
$5.448 billion (31 December 2012 est.)
country comparison to the world: 111
[see also: Debt - external country ranks ]
kyats (MMK) per US dollar -
1 April - 31 March
2) The rank that you see is the CIA reported rank, which may habe the following issues:
a) They assign increasing rank number, alphabetically for countries with the same value of the ranked item, whereas we assign them the same rank.
b) The CIA sometimes assignes counterintuitive ranks. For example, it assigns unemployment rates in increasing order, whereas we rank them in decreasing order
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This page was last modified 11-Mar-13