Pittsburgh, and San Francisco; US—Ambassador Warren ZIMMERMAN; Embassy at Kneza Milosa 50, Belgrade; telephone [38](11) 645-655; there is a US Consulate General in Zagreb
Flag: three equal horizontal bands of blue (top), white, and red with a large red five-pointed star edged in yellow superimposed in the center over all three bands
Economy
Overview: Tito's reform programs 20 years ago changed the Stalinist command economy to a decentralized semimarket system but a system that the rigid, ethnically divided political structure ultimately could not accommodate. A prominent feature of the reforms was the establishment of workers' self-management councils in all large plants, which were to select managers, stimulate production, and divide the proceeds. The general result of these reforms has been rampant wage-price inflation, substantial rundown of capital plant, consumer shortages, and a still larger income gap between the poorer southern regions and the relatively affluent northern provinces of Hrvatska and Slovenija. In 1988-89 the beleaguered central government has been reforming the reforms, trying to create an open market economy with still considerable state ownership of major industrial plants. These reforms have been moving forward with the advice and support of the International Monetary Fund through a series of tough negotiations. Self-management supposedly is to be replaced by the discipline of the market and by fiscal austerity, ultimately leading to a stable dinar. However, strikes in major plants, hyperinflation, and interregional political jousting have held back progress. According to US economic advisers, only a highly unlikely combination of genuine privatization, massive Western economic investment and aid, and political moderation can salvage this economy.
GNP: $129.5 billion, per capita $5,464; real growth rate -1.0% (1989 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 2,700% (1989 est.)
Unemployment rate: 15% (1989)
Budget: revenues $6.4 billion; expenditures $6.4 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (1990)
Exports: $13.1 billion (f.o.b., 1988); commodities—raw materials and semimanufactures 50%, consumer goods 31%, capital goods and equipment 19%; partners—EC 30%, CEMA 45%, less developed countries 14%, US 5%, other 6%
Imports: $13.8 billion (c.i.f., 1988); commodities—raw materials and semimanufactures 79%, capital goods and equipment 15%, consumer goods 6%; partners—EC 30%, CEMA 45%, less developed countries 14%, US 5%, other 6%
External debt: $17.0 billion, medium and long term (1989)
Industrial production: growth rate -1% (1989 est.)
Electricity: 21,000,000 kW capacity; 87,100 million kWh produced, 3,650 kWh per capita (1989)
Industries: metallurgy, machinery and equipment, petroleum, chemicals, textiles, wood processing, food processing, pulp and paper, motor vehicles, building materials
Agriculture: diversified, with many small private holdings and large combines; main crops—corn, wheat, tobacco, sugar beets, sunflowers; occasionally a net exporter of corn, tobacco, foodstuffs, live animals
Aid: donor—about $3.5 billion in bilateral aid to non-Communist less developed countries (1966-88)
Currency: Yugoslav dinar (plural—dinars); 1 Yugoslav dinar (YD) = 100 paras; note—on 1 January 1990, Yugoslavia began issuing a new currency with 1 new dinar equal to 10,000 YD
Exchange rates: Yugoslav dinars (YD) per US$1—118,568 (January 1990), 28,764 (1989), 2,523 (1988), 737 (1987), 379 (1986), 270 (1985); note—as of February 1990 the new dinar is linked to the FRG deutsche mark at the rate of 7 new dinars per 1 deustche mark
Fiscal year: calendar year
Communications
Railroads: 9,270 km total; (all 1.435-meter
standard gauge) including 926 km double
track, 3,771 km electrified (1987)
Highways: 120,747 km total; 71,315 km asphalt, concrete, stone block; 34,299 km macadam, asphalt treated, gravel, crushed stone; 15,133 km earth (1987)
Inland waterways: 2,600 km (1982)
Pipelines: 1,373 km crude oil; 2,900 km natural gas; 150 km refined products
Ports: Rijeka, Split, Koper, Bar, Ploce; inland port is Belgrade
Merchant marine: 270 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 3,608,705 GRT/5,809,219 DWT; includes 3 passenger, 4 short-sea passenger, 131 cargo, 3 refrigerated cargo, 16 container, 14 roll-on/roll-off cargo, 3 multifunction large-load carrier, 9 petroleum, oils, and lubricants (POL) tanker, 3 chemical tanker, 3 combination ore/oil, 73 bulk, 8 combination bulk; note—Yugoslavia owns 19 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 229,614 GRT/353,224 DWT under the registry of Liberia, Panama, and Cyprus
Civil air: NA major transport aircraft
Airports: 184 total, 184 usable; 54 with permanent-surface runways; none with runways over 3,659 m; 22 with runways 2,440 to 3,659 m; 20 with runways 1,220-2,439 m
Telecommunications: stations—199 AM, 87 FM, 50 TV; 4,107,846 TV sets; 4,700,000 radio receivers; satellite earth stations—1 Atlantic Ocean INTELSAT and 1 Indian Ocean INTELSAT
Defense Forces
Branches: Yugoslav People's Army
Ground Forces, Naval Forces, Air and
Air Defense Forces, Frontier Guard,
Territorial Defense Force, Civil Defense
Military manpower: males 15-49, 6,135,628; 4,970,420 fit for military service; 188,028 reach military age (19) annually
Defense expenditures: 14.8 trillion dinars, 4.6% of national income (1989 est.); note—conversion of the military budget into US dollars using the official administratively set exchange rate would produce misleading results
