Economy - overview: This is a traditional Polynesian economy in which more than 90% of the land is communally owned. Economic activity is strongly linked to the US, with which American Samoa conducts the great bulk of its foreign trade. Tuna fishing and tuna processing plants are the backbone of the private sector, with canned tuna the primary export. Transfers from the US Government add substantially to American Samoa's economic well-being. Attempts by the government to develop a larger and broader economy are restrained by Samoa's remote location, its limited transportation, and its devastating hurricanes. Tourism, a developing sector, may be held back by the current financial difficulties in East Asia.

Numbers

GDP: purchasing power parity - $500 million (2000 est.)

GDP - real growth rate: NA%

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $8,000 (2000 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: NA%
industry: NA%
services: NA% (2002)

Population below poverty line: NA% (2002 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: NA%
highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices): NA% (2003 est.)

Labor force: 14,000 (1996)

Labor force - by occupation: government 33%, tuna canneries 34%, other 33% (1990)

Unemployment rate: 6% (2000)

Budget:
revenues: $121 million (37% in local revenue and 63% in US grants)
expenditures: $127 million, including capital expenditures of $NA (FY96/97)

Industries: tuna canneries (largely dependent on foreign fishing vessels), handicrafts

Industrial production growth rate: NA%

Electricity - production: 130 GWh (2001)

Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel: 100%
hydro: 0%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption: 120.9 GWh (2001)

Electricity - exports: 0 kWh (2001)

Electricity - imports: 0 kWh (2001)

Oil - production: 0 barrel/day (2001 est.)

Oil - consumption: 3,800 barrel/day (604 m³/d) 2001

Oil - exports: NA

Oil - imports: NA

Agriculture - products: bananas, coconuts, vegetables, taro, breadfruit, yams, copra, pineapples, papayas; dairy products, livestock

Exports: $30 million (2002)

Exports - commodities: canned tuna 93%

Exports - partners: Indonesia 70%, Australia 6.7%, Japan 6.7%, Samoa 6.7% (2002)

Imports: $123 million (2002)

Imports - commodities: materials for canneries 56%, food 8%, petroleum products 7%, machinery and parts 6%

Imports - partners: Australia 36.6%, New Zealand 20.3%, South Korea 16.3%, Mauritius 4.9% (2002)

Debt - external: $NA (2002 est.)

Economic aid - recipient: $NA; note - important financial support from the US, more than $40 million in 1994

Currency: US dollar (USD)

Currency code: USD

Exchange rates: US dollar is used

Fiscal year: 1 October - 30 September

See also

• American Samoa