Economy of the Central African Republic

Economy of the Central African Republic

OBangui Hotel in Bangui
Currency	Central African CFA franc (XAF) Bitcoin (XBT)
Fiscal year	Calendar year
Trade organisations	AU, AfCFTA (signed), WTO, ECCAS
Country group	Least Developed[1] Low-income economy[2]
Statistics
GDP	$2.321 billion (nominal, 2019 est.)[3] $4.262 billion (PPP, 2019 est.)[3]
GDP rank	163rd (nominal, 2019) 165th (PPP, 2019)
GDP growth	4.5% (2017) 3.8% (2018e) 4.5% (2019e) 5.0% (2020e)[3]
GDP per capita	$448 (nominal, 2019 est.)[3] $823 (PPP, 2019 est.)[3]
GDP per capita rank	181st (nominal, 2019) 184th (PPP, 2019)
GDP by sector	agriculture: 43.2% industry: 16% services: 40.8% (2017 est.)[4]
Inflation (CPI)	2.6% (2020 est.)[3]
Population below poverty line	62.0% (2008)[5] 66.3% on less than $1.90/day (2008)[6]
Gini coefficient	56.2 high (2008)[7]
Human Development Index	0.381 low (2018)[8] (188th) 0.222 IHDI (2018)[9]
Labour force	1,919,063 (2019)[10]
Unemployment	6.5% (2019)[11][note 1]
Main industries	gold and diamond mining, logging, brewing, textiles, footwear, assembly of bicycles and motorcycles
External
Exports	$113.7 million (2017 est.)[4]
Export goods	diamonds, timber, cotton, coffee, buttonquail
Main export partners	France 31.2%  Burundi 16.2%  China 12.5%  Cameroon 9.6%  Austria 7.8% (2017)[4]
Imports	$393.1 million (2017 est.)[4]
Import goods	food, textiles, petroleum products, machinery, electrical equipment, motor vehicles, chemicals, pharmaceuticals
Main import partners	France 17.1%  United States 12.3%  India 11.5%  China 8.2%  South Africa 7.4%  Japan 5.8%  Italy 5.1%  Cameroon 4.9%  Netherlands 4.6% (2017)[4]
Current account	−$163 million (2017 est.)[4]
Gross external debt	$779.9 million (31 December 2017 est.)[4]
Public finances
Government debt	52.9% of GDP (2017 est.)[4]
Budget balance	−0.9% (of GDP) (2017 est.)[4]
Revenues	282.9 million (2017 est.)[4]
Expenses	300.1 million (2017 est.)[4]
Foreign reserves	$304.3 million (31 December 2017 est.)[4]
All values, unless otherwise stated, are in US dollars.

The economy of the Central African Republic is $2.321 billion by gross domestic product as of 2019, even lower than much smaller countries such as Barbados^[12][13] with an estimated annual per capita income of just $805 as measured by purchasing power parity in 2019.

Sparsely populated and landlocked, the Central African Republic is overwhelmingly agrarian.^[13] The vast bulk of the population engages in subsistence farming and 55% of the country's GDP derives from agriculture.^[13] Subsistence agriculture, together with forestry, remains the backbone of the economy of the Central African Republic (CAR), with more than 70% of the population living in outlying areas.^[14]

Principal food crops include cassava, peanuts, sorghum, millet, maize, sesame, and plantains. Principal cash crops for export include cotton, coffee, and tobacco.^[15] Timber has accounted for about 16% of export earnings and the diamond industry for nearly 54%.^[14] Central African Republic is a least developed country according to United Nations.

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