Economy — Eswatini
GDP, employment, industries, public finance, and currency.
Profile updated 2026-06-02
⚡ Economy at a glance
GDP, employment, industries, public finance, and currency. Key figure for Eswatini: A small, landlocked kingdom, Eswatini is bordered in the north, west and south by the Republic of South Africa and by Mozambique in the east. Eswatini depends on South Africa for a majority of its exports and imports. Eswatini's currency is pegged to the South African rand, effectively relinquishing Eswatini's mon…
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Economic overview
- Economic Overview
A small, landlocked kingdom, Eswatini is bordered in the north, west and south by the Republic of South Africa and by Mozambique in the east. Eswatini depends on South Africa for a majority of its exports and imports. Eswatini's currency is pegged to the South African rand, effectively relinquishing Eswatini's monetary policy to South Africa. The government is dependent on customs duties from the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) for almost half of its revenue. Eswatini is a lower middle income country. As of 2017, more than one-quarter of the adult population was infected by HIV/AIDS; Eswatini has the world’s highest HIV prevalence rate, a financial strain and source of economic instability. The manufacturing sector diversified in the 1980s and 1990s, but manufacturing has grown little in the last decade. Sugar and soft drink concentrate are the largest foreign exchange earners, although a drought in 2015-16 decreased sugar production and exports. Overgrazing, soil depletion, drought, and floods are persistent problems. Mining has declined in importance in recent years. Coal, gold, diamond, and quarry stone mines are small scale, and the only iron ore mine closed in 2014. With an estimated 28% unemployment rate, Eswatini's need to increase the number and size of small and medium enterprises and to attract foreign direct investment is acute. Eswatini's national development strategy, which expires in 2022, prioritizes increases in infrastructure, agriculture production, and economic diversification, while aiming to reduce poverty and government spending. Eswatini's revenue from SACU receipts are likely to continue to decline as South Africa pushes for a new distribution scheme, making it harder for the government to maintain fiscal balance without introducing new sources of revenue.
- Industries
Mining (coal), wood pulp, sugar, soft drink concentrates, textile and apparel
- GDP - per capita (PPP)
$9,800.00 (USD)
- GDP - real growth rate
1.9%
GDP & growth
- GDP - Gross Domestic Product (PPP)
$9,740,000,000 (USD)
- GDP Per Capita
$9,800.00 (USD)
- GDP - real growth rate
1.9%
- GDP - official exchange rate
$4,305,000,000 (USD)
- GDP - composition, by end use
- Household consumption: 78.7%
- Government consumption: 24%
- Investment in fixed capital: 11.6%
- Investment in inventories: -0.1%
- Exports of goods and services: 50.7%
- Imports of goods and services: -64.9%
- GDP by Sector- agriculture
11.9%
- GDP by Sector- Industry
46.6%
- GDP by Sector- services
41.5%
- Industrial Growth Rate
1%
Prices & money
- Inflation Rate
5%
- Exchange Rate per US Dollar
lilangeni (SZL)
- Currency Name and Code
SZL
- Fiscal Year
1 April - 31 March
- Commercial Bank Prime Lending Rate
8.5%
Employment & labor
- Labor Force
1,234
- Unemployment Rate
40%
- Major Industries
Mining (coal), wood pulp, sugar, soft drink concentrates, textile and apparel
- Agriculture Products
Sugarcane, cotton, corn, tobacco, rice, citrus, pineapples, sorghum, peanuts; cattle, goats, sheep
- Population Below Poverty Line
69%
- Child Labor - # of children ages 5-14
28,043
- Child Labor - % of children ages 5-14
9%
Public finance
- Annual Budget
$961,700,000 (USD)
- Budget Surplus or Deficit - percent of GDP
-1.1%
- Taxes and other revenues - percent of GDP
33.5%