Once part of Spain's vast empire in the New World, Honduras became an independent nation in 1821. After two and a half decades of mostly military rule, a freely elected civilian government came to power in 1982. During the 1980s, Honduras proved a haven for anti-Sandinista contras fighting the Marxist Nicaraguan Government and an ally to Salvadoran Government forces fighting leftist guerrillas. The country was devastated by Hurricane Mitch in 1998, which killed about 5,600 people and caused approximately $2 billion in damage.
Economy - overview: Honduras, one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere with an extraordinarily unequal distribution of income and massive unemployment, is banking on expanded trade under the US-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and on debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. The country has met most of its macroeconomic targets, and began a three-year IMF Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PGRF) program in February 2004. Growth remains dependent on the economy of the US, its largest trading partner, on continued exports of non-traditional agricultural products (such as melons, chiles, tilapia, and shrimp), and on reduction of the high crime rate.
GDP (purchasing power parity): $20.21 billion (2005 est.)
GDP (official exchange rate): $7.842 billion (2005 est.)
GDP - real growth rate: 4% (2005 est.)
GDP - per capita (PPP): $2,800 (2005 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 12.7%
industry: 31.2%
services: 56.1% (2005 est.)
Labor force: 2.54 million (2005 est.)
2.54 million (2005 est.)
Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture: 34%
industry: 21%
services: 45% (2001 est.)
Unemployment rate: 28% (2005 est.)
Population below poverty line: 53% (1993 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 0.6%
highest 10%: 42.7% (1998)
Distribution of family income - Gini index: 55 (1999)
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 9.2% (2005 est.)
Investment (gross fixed): 27% of GDP (2005 est.)
Budget:
revenues: $1.693 billion
expenditures: $1.938 billion; including capital expenditures of $106 million (2005 est.)
Public debt: 70.5% of GDP (2005 est.)
Agriculture - products: bananas, coffee, citrus; beef; timber; shrimp
Industries: sugar, coffee, textiles, clothing, wood products
Industrial production growth rate: 7.7% (2003 est.)
Electricity - production: 4.338 billion kWh (2003)
Electricity - consumption: 4.369 billion kWh (2003)
Electricity - exports: 0 kWh (2003)
Electricity - imports: 335 million kWh (2003)
Oil - production: 0 bbl/day (2003 est.)
Oil - consumption: 37,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)
Oil - exports: NA bbl/day
Oil - imports: NA bbl/day
Natural gas - production: 0 cu m (2003 est.)
Natural gas - consumption: 0 cu m (2003 est.)
Current account balance: -$456 million (2005 est.)
Exports: $1.726 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)
Exports - commodities: coffee, shrimp, bananas, gold, palm oil, fruit, lobster, lumber
Exports - partners: US 54.4%, El Salvador 8.1%, Germany 5.9%, Guatemala 5.4% (2004)
Imports: $4.161 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)
Imports - commodities: machinery and transport equipment, industrial raw materials, chemical products, fuels, foodstuffs (2000)
Imports - partners: US 37.5%, Guatemala 6.9%, Mexico 5.4%, Costa Rica 4.3%, El Salvador 4% (2004)
Reserves of foreign exchange and gold: $2.23 billion (2005 est.)
Debt - external: $4.675 billion (2005 est.)
Economic aid - recipient: $557.8 million (1999)
Currency (code): lempira (HNL)
Exchange rates: lempiras per US dollar - 18.92 (2005), 18.206 (2004), 17.345 (2003), 16.433 (2002), 15.474 (2001)
Fiscal year: calendar year
| Energy Production (Quads) = | .0162 | Energy Consumption (Quads) = | .1016 |
| Oil | (Thousand Barrels per Day) |
|
| Production |
| Output |
| Imports |
| Exports |
| Build |
| Consumption |
| Crude Oil |
| 0.00 |
|
| |
| 0.00 |
| 0.00 |
| 0.00 |
| 0.00 |
| NGL's |
| 0.00 |
| |
| 0.00 |
| 0.00 |
| 0.00 |
| 0.00 |
| Other Oils |
| 0.00 |
| |
| 0.00 |
| 0.00 |
| 0.00 |
| 0.00 |
| Gasoline |
| |
| 0.00 |
| 7.60 |
| 0.00 |
| 0.00 |
| 7.60 |
| Jet Fuel |
| |
| 0.00 |
| .50 |
| 0.00 |
| 0.00 |
| .50 |
| Kerosene |
| |
| 0.00 |
| 1.02 |
| 0.00 |
| 0.00 |
| 1.02 |
| Distillate |
| |
| 0.00 |
| 17.90 |
| 0.00 |
| 0.00 |
| 17.90 |
| Residual |
| |
| 0.00 |
| 9.69 |
| .02 |
| 0.00 |
| 9.67 |
| LPG's |
| |
| 0.00 |
| 2.00 |
| .35 |
| 0.00 |
| 1.65 |
| Unspecified |
| |
| 0.00 |
| 0.00 |
| 0.00 |
| 0.00 |
| 0.00 |
| TOTALS |
| 0.00 |
| 0.00 |
| 38.71 |
| .37 |
| 0.00 |
| 38.34 |
| Natural Gas | (Billion Cubic Feet and Quadrillion Btu) |
| Gross Production | (Billion Cubic Feet) | 0.00 |
| Dry Imports | (Billion Cubic Feet) | 0.00 |
| Vented and Flared | (Billion Cubic Feet) | 0.00 |
| Dry Exports | (Billion Cubic Feet) | 0.00 |
| Reinjected | (Billion Cubic Feet) | 0.00 |
| Marketed Production | (Billion Cubic Feet) | 0.00 |
| Dry Production | (Billion Cubic Feet) | 0.00 |
| Dry Production | (Quadrillion Btu) | 0.0000 |
| Dry Consumption | (Billion Cubic Feet) | 0.00 |
| Dry Consumption | (Quadrillion Btu) | 0.0000 |
| Coal | (Thousand Short Tons and Quadrillion Btu) |
| Production |
| Imports |
| Exports |
| Stock Build |
| (1000 Tons) |
| (Quads) | (1000 Tons) |
| (Quads) |
| (1000 Tons) | (Quads) |
| (1000 Tons) | (Quads) |
| Hard Coal |
| |
| | 186 |
| .0043 |
| 0 | 0.0000 |
| -31 | -.0007 |
| Lignite |
| 0 |
| 0.0000 | 0 |
| 0.0000 |
| 0 | 0.0000 |
| 0 | 0.0000 |
| Coke |
| |
| | 0 |
| 0.0000 |
| 0 | 0.0000 |
| 0 | 0.0000 |
| Total Coal |
| 0 |
| 0.0000 | 186 |
| .0043 |
| 0 | 0.0000 |
| -31 | -.0007 |
| Consumption : (1000 Tons) = | 155 |
| (Quads) = |
| .0036 |
| Electricity | (Million Kilowatts, Billion Kilowatt Hours, and Quadrillion Btu) |
| (Million kw) |
| (Billion kwh) |
| (Quads) |
| (Billion kwh) | (Quads) |
| Hydroelectric | .435 |
| 1.594 |
| .0162 |
| Total Imports | .400 |
| .0014 |
| Nuclear | 0.000 |
| 0.000 |
| 0.0000 |
| Total Exports | 0.000 |
| 0.0000 |
| Geothermal and Other | 0.000 |
| 0.000 |
| 0.0000 |
| Losses | .224 |
| |
| Totals | .923 |
| 3.195 |
| Consumption | 3.371 |
