Burma is a resource-rich country that suffers from abject rural poverty. The military regime took steps in the early 1990s to liberalize the economy after decades of failure under the "Burmese Way to Socialism", but those efforts have since stalled. Burma has been unable to achieve monetary or fiscal stability, resulting in an economy that suffers from serious macroeconomic imbalances - including a steep inflation rate and an official exchange rate that overvalues the Burmese kyat by more than 100 times the market rate. In addition, most overseas development assistance ceased after the junta suppressed the democracy movement in 1988 and subsequently ignored the results of the 1990 election. Burma is data poor, and official statistics are often dated and inaccurate. Published estimates of Burma's foreign trade are greatly understated because of the size of the black market and border trade - often estimated to be one to two times the official economy.

purchasing power parity - $73.69 billion (2002 est.)

5.3% (2002 est.)

purchasing power parity - $1,700 (2002 est.)

agriculture: 60%
industry: 9%
services: 31% (2002 est.)

25% (2000 est.)

53.7% (2002 est.)

23.7 million (1999 est.)

agriculture 70%, industry 7%, services 23% (2001 est.)

5.1% (2001 est.)

agricultural processing; knit and woven apparel; wood and wood products; copper, tin, tungsten, iron; construction materials; pharmaceuticals; fertilizer

NA%