Papua New Guinea/

Papua New Guinea is richly endowed with natural resources, but exploitation has been hampered by rugged terrain and the high cost of developing infrastructure. Agriculture provides a subsistence livelihood for 85% of the population. Mineral deposits, including copper, gold, and oil, account for nearly two-thirds of export earnings. Natural gas reserves amount to an estimated 227 billion cubic meters. A consortium led by a major American oil company is constructing a liquefied natural gas (LNG) production facility that could begin exporting in 2013 or 2014. As the largest investment project in the country’s history, it has the potential to double GDP in the near-term and triple Papua New Guinea’s export revenue. The government faces the challenge of ensuring transparency and accountability for revenues flowing from this and other large LNG projects. The government of Prime Minister SOMARE has expended much of its energy remaining in power. He was the first prime minister ever to serve a full five-year term. The government has brought stability to the national budget, largely through expenditure control; however, it relaxed spending constraints in 2006 and 2007 as elections approached. Numerous challenges still face the government, including providing physical security for foreign investors, regaining investor confidence, restoring integrity to state institutions, promoting economic efficiency by privatizing moribund state institutions, and balancing relations with Australia, its former colonial ruler. Other socio-cultural challenges could upend the economy including an HIV/AIDS epidemic, with the highest infection rate in all of East Asia and the Pacific, and chronic law and order and land tenure issues. The global financial crisis had little impact because of continued high demand for Papua New Guinea’s commodities exports.

$14.93 billion (2010 est.)

$14.06 billion (2009 est.)

$13.33 billion (2008 est.)

$8.809 billion (2010 est.)

6.2% (2010 est.)

5.5% (2009 est.)

6.7% (2008 est.)

$2,500 (2010 est.)

$2,400 (2009 est.)

$2,300 (2008 est.)

3.809 million (2010 est.)

1.8% (2004)

37% (2002 est.)

50.9 (1996)

17.3% of GDP (2010 est.)

27.8% of GDP (2010 est.)

29.7% of GDP (2009 est.)

6.8% (2010 est.)

6.9% (2009 est.)

6.92% (31 December 2009)

7% (31 December 2008)

10.09% (31 December 2009 est.)

9.2% (31 December 2008 est.)

$2.551 billion (31 December 2010 est)

$2.263 billion (31 December 2009 est)

$4.726 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

$4.14 billion (31 December 2009 est.)

$2.796 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

$2.424 billion (31 December 2009 est.)

$NA (31 December 2008)

$NA (31 December 2007)

$6.632 billion (31 December 2006)

coffee, cocoa, copra, palm kernels, tea, sugar, rubber, sweet potatoes, fruit, vegetables, vanilla; shell fish; poultry, pork

copra crushing, palm oil processing, plywood production, wood chip production; mining of gold, silver, and copper; crude oil production, petroleum refining; construction, tourism

10% (2010 est.)

2.885 billion kWh (2007 est.)

2.683 billion kWh (2007 est.)

0 kWh (2008 est.)

0 kWh (2008 est.)

35,090 bbl/day (2009 est.)

36,000 bbl/day (2009 est.)

32,490 bbl/day (2007 est.)

14,380 bbl/day (2007 est.)

170 million bbl (1 January 2010 est.)

100 million cu m (2008 est.)

100 million cu m (2008 est.)

0 cu m (2008 est.)

0 cu m (2008 est.)

226.5 billion cu m (1 January 2010 est.)

-$99 million (2010 est.)

-$446.4 million (2009 est.)

$5.976 billion (2010 est.)

$4.392 billion (2009 est.)

oil, gold, copper ore, logs, palm oil, coffee, cocoa, crayfish, prawns

Australia 30.05%, Japan 7.48% (2009)

$3.547 billion (2010 est.)

$2.871 billion (2009 est.)

machinery and transport equipment, manufactured goods, food, fuels, chemicals

Australia 43.27%, China 13.29%, Singapore 9.59%, US 6.4%, Japan 4.62% (2009)

$3.017 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

$2.607 billion (31 December 2009 est.)

$1.548 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

$1.436 billion (31 December 2009 est.)

$NA

$NA

kina (PGK) per US dollar - 2.7517 (2010), 2.7551 (2009), 2.6956 (2008), 3.03 (2007), 3.0643 (2006)