| Economy - overview | Small, landlocked, and mountainous, Lesotho relies on remittances from miners employed in South Africa and customs duties from the Southern Africa Customs Union for the majority of government revenue. However, the government has recently strengthened its tax system to reduce dependency on customs duties. Completion of a major hydropower facility in January 1998 now permits the sale of water to South Africa and also generates royalties for Lesotho. Lesotho produces about 90% of its own electrical power needs. As the number of mineworkers has declined steadily over the past several years, a small manufacturing base has developed based on farm products that support the milling, canning, leather, and jute industries, as well as a rapidly expanding apparel-assembly sector. The latter has grown significantly mainly due to Lesotho qualifying for the trade benefits contained in the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act. The economy is still primarily based on subsistence agriculture, especially livestock, although drought has decreased agricultural activity. The extreme inequality in the distribution of income remains a major drawback. Lesotho has signed an Interim Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility with the IMF. |
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| GDP | 2.6% (2006) |
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| GDP - real growth rate | 3% (2006 est.) |
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| GDP - composition by sector | agriculture: 16.1%
industry: 43%
services: 40.9% (2006 est.) |
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| Population below poverty line | 49% (1999) |
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Household income or consumption
by percentage share | lowest 10%: 0.9%
highest 10%: 43.4% |
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Distribution of family income
- Gini index | 63.2 (1995) |
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| Labor force | 838,000 (2000) |
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| Labor force - by occupation | agriculture: 86% of resident population engaged in subsistence agriculture; roughly 35% of the active male wage earners work in South Africa
industry and services: 14% |
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| Unemployment rate | 45% (2002) |
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| Budget | revenues: $778.9 million
expenditures: $734.7 million; including capital expenditures of $NA (2006 est.) |
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| Industries | food, beverages, textiles, apparel assembly, handicrafts, construction, tourism |
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| Industrial production growth rate | 15.5% (1999) |
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Electricity -
production | 250 million kWh; note - electricity supplied by South Africa (2004) |
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Electricity -
consumption | 244.5 million kWh (2004) |
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Electricity -
exports | 0 kWh (2004) |
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Electricity -
imports | 12 million kWh; note - electricity supplied by South Africa (2004) |
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| Oil - production | 0 bbl/day (2004 est.) |
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| Oil - consumption | 1,400 bbl/day (2004) |
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| Oil - exports | NA bbl/day |
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| Oil - imports | NA bbl/day |
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| Agriculture - products | corn, wheat, pulses, sorghum, barley; livestock |
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| Exports | $779.1 million f.o.b. (2006 est.) |
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| Exports - commodities | manufactures 75% (clothing, footwear, road vehicles), wool and mohair, food and live animals (2000) |
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| Exports - partners | Hong Kong 29.6%, China 24%, Taiwan 22.3%, Germany 5.7%, India 5.5% (2005) |
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| Imports | $1.401 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.) |
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| Imports - commodities | food; building materials, vehicles, machinery, medicines, petroleum products |
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| Imports - partners | US 83.8%, Belgium 12.7%, Canada 2.4% (2005) |
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| Debt - external | $735 million (2002) |
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| Economic aid - recipient | $41.5 million (2000) |
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| Currency code | LSL; ZAR |
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| Exchange rates | maloti per US dollar - 6.85 (2006), 6.3593 (2005), 6.4597 (2004), 7.5648 (2003), 10.541 (2002) |
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| Fiscal year | 1 April - 31 March |
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