Tuvalu:
Economy

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Other pages in this profile of Tuvalu:
Geography, People, Government, Communications & Transportation, Military & Transnational Issues.


Economy - overview	Tuvalu consists of a densely populated, scattered group of nine coral atolls with poor soil. The country has no known mineral resources and few exports. Subsistence farming and fishing are the primary economic activities. Fewer than 1,000 tourists, on average, visit Tuvalu annually. Government revenues largely come from the sale of stamps and coins and remittances from seamen on merchant ships abroad. About 1,000 Tuvaluans are being repatriated from Nauru, with the decline of phosphate resources there. Substantial income is received annually from an international trust fund established in 1987 by Australia, NZ, and the UK and supported also by Japan and South Korea. Thanks to wise investments and conservative withdrawals, this fund grew from an initial $17 million to over $35 million in 1999. The US Government is also a major revenue source for Tuvalu because of payments from a 1988 treaty on fisheries. In an effort to reduce its dependence on foreign aid, the government is pursuing public sector reforms, including privatization of some government functions and personnel cuts of up to 7%. Tuvalu derives around $1.5 million per year from the lease of its ".tv" Internet domain name. With merchandise exports only a fraction of merchandise imports, continued reliance must be placed on fishing and telecommunications license fees, remittances from overseas workers, official transfers, and income from overseas investments.
GDP (purchasing power parity)	$14.94 million (2002 est.)
GDP (official exchange rate)	$14.94 million (2002)
GDP - real growth rate	1.2% (2002 est.)
GDP - per capita	$1,600 (2002 est.)
GDP - composition by sector	agriculture: 16.6% industry: 27.2% services: 56.2% (2002)
Labor force	3,615 (2004 est.)
Labor force - by occupation	note: people make a living mainly through exploitation of the sea, reefs, and atolls and from wages sent home by those abroad (mostly workers in the phosphate industry and sailors)
Unemployment rate	NA%
Population below poverty line	NA%
Household income or consumption by percentage share	lowest 10%: NA% highest 10%: NA%
Inflation rate (consumer prices)	3.9% (2005 est.)
Budget	revenues: $22.78 million expenditures: $14.23 million (2002)
Agriculture - products	coconuts; fish
Industries	fishing, tourism, copra
Current account balance	$2.323 million (1998)
Exports	$1 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)
Exports - commodities	copra, fish
Exports - partners	Germany 60.5%, Italy 20.1%, Fiji 6.9% (2006)
Imports	$9.186 million c.i.f. (2004 est.)
Imports - commodities	food, animals, mineral fuels, machinery, manufactured goods
Imports - partners	Fiji 46.1%, Japan 18.9%, China 18.2%, Australia 7.7%, NZ 4.1% (2006)
Debt - external	$NA
Economic aid - recipient	$13 million; note - major donors are Australia, Japan, and the US (1999 est.)
Currency (code)	Australian dollar (AUD); note - there is also a Tuvaluan dollar
Exchange rates	Tuvaluan dollars or Australian dollars per US dollar - 1.3285 (2006), 1.3095 (2005), 1.3598 (2004), 1.5419 (2003), 1.8406 (2002)
Fiscal year	calendar year