The 2008 CIA World Factbook, United States. Central Intelligence Agency [primary phonics books .TXT] 📗

2001, Vietnamese authorities have reaffirmed their commitment to economic liberalization and international integration. They have moved to implement the structural reforms needed to modernize the economy and to produce more competitive, export-driven industries. The economy grew 8.5% in 2007. Vietnam's membership in the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) and entry into force of the US-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement in December 2001 have led to even more rapid changes in Vietnam's trade and economic regime. Vietnam's exports to the US increased 900% from 2001 to 2007. Vietnam joined the WTO in January 2007, following over a decade long negotiation process. WTO membership has provided Vietnam an anchor to the global market and reinforced the domestic economic reform process. Among other benefits, accession allows Vietnam to take advantage of the phase-out of the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing, which eliminated quotas on textiles and clothing for WTO partners on 1 January 2005. Agriculture's share of economic output has continued to shrink, from about 25% in 2000 to less than 20% in 2007. Deep poverty, defined as a percent of the population living under $1 per day, has declined significantly and is now smaller than that of China, India, and the Philippines. Vietnam is working to create jobs to meet the challenge of a labor force that is growing by more than one-and-a-half million people every year. In an effort to stem high inflation which took off in 2007, early in 2008 Vietnamese authorities began to raise benchmark interest rates and reserve requirements. Hanoi is targeting an economic growth rate of 7.5-8% during the next four years.

Virgin Islands
  Tourism is the primary economic activity, accounting
  for 80% of GDP and employment. The islands hosted 2.6 million
  visitors in 2005. The manufacturing sector consists of petroleum
  refining, textiles, electronics, pharmaceuticals, and watch
  assembly. One of the world's largest petroleum refineries is at
  Saint Croix. The agricultural sector is small, with most food being
  imported. International business and financial services are small
  but growing components of the economy. The islands are vulnerable to
  substantial damage from storms. The government is working to improve
  fiscal discipline, to support construction projects in the private
  sector, to expand tourist facilities, to reduce crime, and to
  protect the environment.

Wake Island
  Economic activity is limited to providing services to
  military personnel and contractors located on the island. All food
  and manufactured goods must be imported.

Wallis and Futuna
  The economy is limited to traditional subsistence
  agriculture, with about 80% of labor force earnings from agriculture
  (coconuts and vegetables), livestock (mostly pigs), and fishing.
  About 4% of the population is employed in government. Revenues come
  from French Government subsidies, licensing of fishing rights to
  Japan and South Korea, import taxes, and remittances from expatriate
  workers in New Caledonia.

West Bank
  The West Bank - the larger of the two areas comprising the
  Palestinian Authority (PA) - has experienced a general decline in
  economic conditions since the second intifada began in September
  2000. The downturn has been largely a result of Israeli closure
  policies - the imposition of closures and access restrictions in
  response to security concerns in Israel - which disrupted labor and
  trading relationships. In 2001, and even more severely in 2002,
  Israeli military measures in PA areas resulted in the destruction of
  capital, the disruption of administrative structures, and widespread
  business closures. International aid of at least $1.14 billion to
  the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 2004 prevented the complete collapse
  of the economy and allowed some reforms in the government's
  financial operations. In 2005, high unemployment and limited trade
  opportunities - due to continued closures both within the West Bank
  and externally - stymied growth. Israel's and the international
  community's financial embargo of the PA when HAMAS ran the PA during
  March 2006 - June 2007 has interrupted the provision of PA social
  services and the payment of PA salaries. Since June the Fayyad
  government in the West Bank has restarted salary payments and the
  provision of services but would be unable to operate absent high
  levels of international assistance.

Western Sahara
  Western Sahara depends on pastoral nomadism, fishing,
  and phosphate mining as the principal sources of income for the
  population. The territory lacks sufficient rainfall for sustainable
  agricultural production, and most of the food for the urban
  population must be imported. Incomes in Western Sahara are
  substantially below the Moroccan level. The Moroccan Government
  controls all trade and other economic activities in Western Sahara.
  Morocco and the EU signed a four-year agreement in July 2006
  allowing European vessels to fish off the coast of Morocco,
  including the disputed waters off the coast of Western Sahara.
  Moroccan energy interests in 2001 signed contracts to explore for
  oil off the coast of Western Sahara, which has angered the
  Polisario. However, in 2006 the Polisario awarded similar
  exploration licenses in the disputed territory, which would come
  into force if Morocco and the Polisario resolve their dispute over
  Western Sahara.

World Global output rose by 5.2% in 2007, led by China (11.4%), India (9.2%), and Russia (8.1%). The 14 other successor nations of the USSR and the other old Warsaw Pact nations again experienced widely divergent growth rates; the three Baltic nations continued as strong performers, in the 8%-10% range of growth. From 2006 to 2007 growth rates slowed in all the major industrial countries except for the United Kingdom (3.1%). Analysts attribute the slowdown to uncertainties in the financial markets and lowered consumer confidence. Worldwide, nations varied widely in their growth results. Externally, the nation-state, as a bedrock economic-political institution, is steadily losing control over international flows of people, goods, funds, and technology. Internally, the central government often finds its control over resources slipping as separatist regional movements - typically based on ethnicity - gain momentum, e.g., in many of the successor states of the former Soviet Union, in the former Yugoslavia, in India, in Iraq, in Indonesia, and in Canada. Externally, the central government is losing decisionmaking powers to international bodies, notably the EU. In Western Europe, governments face the difficult political problem of channeling resources away from welfare programs in order to increase investment and strengthen incentives to seek employment. The addition of 80 million people each year to an already overcrowded globe is exacerbating the problems of pollution, desertification, underemployment, epidemics, and famine. Because of their own internal problems and priorities, the industrialized countries devote insufficient resources to deal effectively with the poorer areas of the world, which, at least from an economic point of view, are becoming further marginalized. The introduction of the euro as the common currency of much of Western Europe in January 1999, while paving the way for an integrated economic powerhouse, poses economic risks because of varying levels of income and cultural and political differences among the participating nations. The terrorist attacks on the US on 11 September 2001 accentuated a growing risk to global prosperity, illustrated, for example, by the reallocation of resources away from investment to anti-terrorist programs. The opening of war in March 2003 between a US-led coalition and Iraq added new uncertainties to global economic prospects. After the initial coalition victory, the complex political difficulties and the high economic cost of establishing domestic order in Iraq became major global problems that continued through 2007.

Yemen
  Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the Arab world,
  reported average annual growth in the range of 3-4% from 2000
  through 2007. Its economic fortunes depend mostly on declining oil
  resources, but the country is trying to diversify its earnings. In
  2006 Yemen began an economic reform program designed to bolster
  non-oil sectors of the economy and foreign investment. As a result
  of the program, international donors pledged about $5 billion for
  development projects. In addition, Yemen has made some progress on
  reforms over the last year that will likely encourage foreign
  investment. Oil revenues probably increased in 2007 as a result of
  higher prices.

Zambia
  Zambia's economy has experienced modest growth in recent
  years, with real GDP growth in 2005-07 between 5-6% per year.
  Privatization of government-owned copper mines in the 1990s relieved
  the government from covering mammoth losses generated by the
  industry and greatly improved the chances for copper mining to
  return to profitability and spur economic growth. Copper output has
  increased steadily since 2004, due to higher copper prices and
  foreign investment. In 2005, Zambia qualified for debt relief under
  the Highly Indebted Poor Country Initiative, consisting of
  approximately USD 6 billion in debt relief. Zambia experienced a
  bumper harvest in 2007, which helped to boost GDP and agricultural
  exports and contain inflation. Although poverty continues to be
  significant problem in Zambia, its economy has strengthened,
  featuring single-digit inflation, a relatively stable currency,
  decreasing interest rates, and increasing levels of trade.

Zimbabwe
  The government of Zimbabwe faces a wide variety of
  difficult economic problems as it struggles with an unsustainable
  fiscal deficit, an overvalued official exchange rate,
  hyperinflation, and bare store shelves. Its 1998-2002 involvement in
  the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo drained hundreds of
  millions of dollars from the economy. The government's land reform
  program, characterized by chaos and violence, has badly damaged the
  commercial farming sector, the traditional source of exports and
  foreign exchange and the provider of 400,000 jobs, turning Zimbabwe
  into a net importer of food products. The EU and the US provide food
  aid on humanitarian grounds. Badly needed support from the IMF has
  been suspended because of the government's arrears on past loans and
  the government's unwillingness to enact reforms that would stabilize
  the economy. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe routinely prints money to
  fund the budget deficit, causing the official annual inflation rate
  to rise from 32% in 1998, to 133% in 2004, 585% in 2005, passed
  1000% in 2006, and 26000% in November 2007. Private sector estimates
  of inflation in 2007 are well above 100,000%. Meanwhile, the
  official exchange rate fell from approximately 1 (revalued)
  Zimbabwean dollar per US dollar in 2003 to 30,000 per US dollar in
  2007.

This page was last updated on 18 December 2008

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@2117 Pipelines (km)

Afghanistan
  gas 466 km (2007)

Albania
  gas 339 km; oil 207 km (2007)

Algeria
  condensate 1,532 km; gas 13,861 km; liquid petroleum gas
  2,408 km; oil 6,878 km (2007)

Angola
  gas 234 km; liquid petroleum gas 85 km; oil 896 km;
  oil/gas/water 5 km (2007)

Argentina
  gas 28,657 km; liquid petroleum gas 41 km; oil 5,607 km;
  refined products 3,052 km; unknown (oil/water) 13 km (2007)

Armenia
  gas 2,036 km (2007)

Australia
  condensate/gas 469 km; gas 26,719 km; liquid petroleum gas
  240 km; oil 3,720 km; oil/gas/water 110 km (2007)

Austria
  gas 2,722 km; oil 663 km; refined products 157 km (2007)

Azerbaijan
  gas 3,857 km; oil 2,436 km (2007)

Bahrain
  gas 20 km; oil 52 km (2007)

Bangladesh
  gas 2,644 km (2007)

Belarus
  gas 5,250 km; oil 1,528 km; refined products 1,730 km (2007)

Belgium
  gas 1,562 km; oil 158 km; refined products 535 km (2007)

Bolivia
  gas 4,860 km; liquid petroleum gas 47 km; oil 2,475 km;
  refined products 1,589 km; unknown (oil/water) 247 km (2007)

Brazil
  condensate/gas 244 km; gas 12,070 km; liquid petroleum gas
  351 km; oil 5,214 km; refined products 4,410 km (2007)

Brunei
  gas 672 km; oil 463 km (2007)

Bulgaria
  gas 2,500 km; oil 339 km; refined products 156 km (2007)

Burma
  gas 2,790 km; oil 558 km (2007)

Cameroon
  gas 27 km; liquid petroleum gas 5 km; oil 1,110 km (2007)

Canada
  crude and refined oil 23,564 km; liquid petroleum gas 74,980
  km (2006)

Chad
  oil 250 km (2007)

Chile
  gas 2,550 km; gas/liquid petroleum gas 42 km; liquid petroleum
  gas 539 km; oil 1,002 km; refined products 757 km; unknown
  (oil/water) 97 km (2007)

China
  gas 26,344 km; oil 17,240 km; refined products 6,106 km (2007)

Colombia
  gas 4,329 km; oil 6,140 km; refined products 3,145 km (2007)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  gas 62 km; oil 71 km (2007)

Congo, Republic of the gas 89 km; liquid petroleum gas 4 km; oil 758 km (2007)

Costa Rica
  refined products 242 km (2007)

Cote d'Ivoire
  condensate 102 km; gas 245 km; oil 112 km (2007)

Croatia
  gas 1,556 km; oil 583 km (2007)

Cuba
  gas 49 km; oil 230 km (2007)

Czech Republic
  gas 7,010 km; oil 547 km; refined products 94 km
  (2007)

Denmark
  condensate 11 km; gas 4,073 km; oil 617 km; oil/gas/water 2
  km (2007)

Ecuador
  extra