CATEGORIES
◆ COMMUNICATIONS(9 fields)
Airports
179 total, 179 usable; 54 with permanent-surface runways; none with runways over 3,659 m; 23 with runways 2,440-3,659 m; 20 with runways 1,220-2,439 m
Civil air
57 major transport aircraft
Highways
122,062 km total; 73,527 km asphalt, concrete, stone block; 33,663 km macadam, asphalt treated, gravel, crushed stone; 14,872 km earth (1988)
Inland waterways
2,600 km (1982)
Merchant marine
277 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 3,780,095 GRT/6,031,359 DWT; includes 3 passenger, 4 short-sea passenger, 133 cargo, 5 refrigerated cargo, 19 container, 10 roll-on/roll-off cargo, 3 multifunction large-load carrier, 9 petroleum, oils, and lubricants (POL) tanker, 3 chemical tanker, 2 combination ore/oil, 75 bulk, 11 combination bulk; note--Yugoslavia owns 13 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 253,400 GRT/429,613 DWT under the registry of Liberia, Panama, and Cyprus
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
Railroads
9,349 km total; (all 1.435-meter standard gauge) including 931 km double track, 3,760 km electrified (1988)
Telecommunications
1.6 million telephones (97% automatic); 7,500 public telephone booths; stations--85 AM, 69 FM, 103 TV; 4.65 million radios; 4.1 million TVs (1990); 92% of country receives No. 1 television program (1990)
◆ DEFENSE FORCES(3 fields)
Branches
Yugoslav People's Army--Ground Forces, Naval Forces, Air and Air Defense Forces, Frontier Guard, Territorial Defense Force, Civil Defense
Defense expenditures
70.85 billion dinars, 4-6% of GDP (1991 est.); note--conversion of defense expenditures into US dollars using the official administratively set exchange rate would produce misleading results
Manpower availability
males 15-49, 6,176,693; 5,001,024 fit for military service; 189,886 reach military age (19) annually
◆ ECONOMY(16 fields)
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
Budget
revenues $6.4 billion; expenditures $6.4 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (1990)
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
Economic aid
donor--about $3.5 billion in bilateral aid to non-Communist less developed countries (1966-89)
Electricity
21,000,000 kW capacity; 83,400 million kWh produced, 3,500 kWh per capita (1990)
Exchange rates
Yugoslav dinars (YD) per US$1--13.605 (January 1991), 11.318 (1990), 2.876 (1989), 0.252 (1988), 0.074 (1987), 0.038 (1986), 0.027 (1985); note--as of January 1991 the new dinar is linked to the German deutsche mark at the rate of 9 new dinars per 1 deustche mark
Exports
$13.3 billion (f.o.b., 1990 est.); commodities--raw materials and semimanufactures 50%, consumer goods 31%, capital goods and equipment 19%; partners--EC 53%, USSR and Eastern Europe 27%, less developed countries 12.9%, US 4.8%, other 2.3%
External debt
$18.0 billion, medium and long term (December 1990)
Fiscal year
calendar year
GNP
$120.1 billion, per capita $5,040; real growth rate - 6.3% (1990 est.)
Imports
$17.6 billion (c.i.f., 1990 est.); commodities--raw materials and semimanufactures 79%, capital goods and equipment 15%, consumer goods 6%; partners--EC 53.5%, USSR and Eastern Europe 22.8%, less developed countries 15.4%, US 4.6%, other 3.7%
Industrial production
growth rate - 10.9% (1990)
Industries
metallurgy, machinery and equipment, petroleum, chemicals, textiles, wood processing, food processing, pulp and paper, motor vehicles, building materials
Inflation rate (consumer prices)
164% (1990)
Overview
For 20 years Communist Yugoslavia had been trying to replace the Stalinist command economy with a decentralized semimarket system that features worker self-management councils in all large plants. This hybrid system neared collapse in late 1989 when inflation soared. The government applied shock therapy in 1990 under an IMF standby program that provides tight control over monetary expansion, a freeze on wages, the pegging of the dinar to the deutsche mark, and a partial price freeze on energy, transportation, and communal services. This program brought hyperinflation to a halt and encouraged a rise in foreign investment. Since June 1990, however, inflation has rebounded and threatens to rise further in 1991. Estimated annual inflation for 1990 is 164%. Other huge problems remain: rising unemployment, the low quality of industrial output, and striking differences in income between the poorer southern regions and the comparatively well-off northern areas. Even so, political issues far outweigh economic problems in importance.
Unemployment rate
16% (1990)
◆ GEOGRAPHY(11 fields)
Climate
temperate; hot, relatively dry summers with mild, rainy winters along coast; warm summer with cold winters inland
Coastline
3,935 km (including 2,414 km offshore islands) Continental shelf: 200 m (depth) or to depth of exploitation; Territorial sea: 12 nm
Comparative area
slightly larger than Wyoming
Disputes
Kosovo question with Albania; Macedonia question with Bulgaria and Greece
Environment
subject to frequent and destructive earthquakes
Land boundaries
2,961 km total; Albania 486 km, Austria 311 km, Bulgaria 539 km, Greece 246 km, Hungary 631 km, Italy 202 km, Romania 546 km
Land use
arable land 28%; permanent crops 3%; meadows and pastures 25%; forest and woodland 36%; other 8%; includes irrigated 1%
Natural resources
coal, copper, bauxite, timber, iron ore, antimony, chromium, lead, zinc, asbestos, mercury, crude oil, natural gas, nickel, uranium
Note
controls the most important land routes from central and western Europe to Aegean Sea and Turkish straits
Terrain
mostly mountains with large areas of karst topography; plain in north
Total area
255,800 km2; land area: 255,400 km2
◆ GOVERNMENT(18 fields)
Administrative divisions
6 republics (republike, singular--republika); Bosna i Hercegovina (Bosnia and Hercegovina), Crna Gora (Montenegro), Hrvatska (Croatia), Makedonija (Macedonia), Slovenija (Slovenia), Srbija (Serbia); note--there are two nominally autonomous provinces (autonomne pokajine, singular--autonomna pokajina) within Srbija--Kosovo and Vojvodina
Capital
Belgrade
Constitution
21 February 1974, amendments to the Constitution have passed the Federal Assembly and are being considered at the republic level
Diplomatic representation
Ambassador Dzevad MUJEZINOVIC; Chancery at 2410 California Street NW, Washington DC 20008; telephone (202) 462-6566; there are Yugoslav Consulates General in Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco; US--Ambassador Warren ZIMMERMAN; mailing address Box 5070, Belgrade or APO New York 09213-5070; telephone [38] (11) 645-655; there is a US Consulate General in Zagreb
Elections
direct federal elections may never be held because of inter-republic differences over Yugoslavia's future structure
Executive branch
president of the Presidency, vice president of the Presidency, Presidency, president of the Federal Executive Council, two vice presidents of the Federal Executive Council, Federal Executive Council
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
Independence
1 December 1918; independent monarchy established from the Kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro, parts of the Turkish Empire, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire; SFRY proclaimed 29 November 1945
Judicial branch
Federal Court (Savezna Sud), Constitutional Court Chief of State--President of the Presidency Stjepan MESIC from Hrvatska (Croatia), one-year term expires 15 May 1992; Vice President of the Presidency Branko KOSTIC from Crna Gora (Montenegro), one-year term expires 15 May 1992; note--the offices of president and vice president rotate annually among members of the Presidency with the current vice president assuming the presidency and a new vice president selected from area which has gone the longest without filling the position (the current sequence is Hrvatska, Crna Gora, Vojvodina, Kosovo, Makedonija, Bosna i Hercegovina, Slovenija, and Srbija); Head of Government--President of the Federal Executive Council Ante MARKOVIC (since 16 March 1989); Vice President of the Federal Executive Council Aleksandar MITROVIC (since 16 March 1989); Vice President of the Federal Executive Council Zivko PREGL (since 16 March 1989)
Legal system
mixture of civil law system and Communist legal theory; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction; a new legal code is being formulated
Legislative branch
bicameral Federal (Skupstina) consists of an upper chamber or Chamber of Republics and Provinces (Vece Republika i Pokrajina) and a lower chamber or Federal Chamber
Long-form name
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia; abbreviated SFRY
Member of
AfDB, AG (observer), BIS, CCC, CERN (observer), CSCE, ECE, FAO, G-9, G-19, G-24, G-77, GATT, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, IDA, IFAD, IFC, ILO, IMF, IMO, INTELSAT, INTERPOL, IOC, IOM (observer), ISO, ITU, LORCS, NAM, OECD (special), PCA, UN, UNAVEM, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIIMOG, UPU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO
National holiday
Proclamation of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, 29 November (1945)
Other political or pressure groups
there are no national political groups; all significant groups are found within the republics
Political parties and leaders
there are over 100 political parties operating, some only in one republic and others country-wide
Suffrage
at age 16 if employed, universal at age 18
Type
federal republic in form; four of six republics have non-Communist governments
◆ PEOPLE(14 fields)
Birth rate
14 births/1,000 population (1991)
Death rate
9 deaths/1,000 population (1991)
Ethnic divisions
Serb 36.3%, Croat 19.7%, Muslim 8.9%, Slovene 7.8%, Albanian 7.7%, Macedonian 5.9%, Yugoslav 5.4%, Montenegrin 2.5%, Hungarian 1.9%, other 3.9% (1981 census)
Infant mortality rate
21 deaths/1,000 live births (1991)
Labor force
9,600,000; agriculture 22%, mining and manufacturing 27%; about 5% of labor force are guest workers in Western Europe (1986)
Language
Serbo-Croatian, Slovene, Macedonian (all official); Albanian, Hungarian
Life expectancy at birth
70 years male, 76 years female (1991)
Literacy
90% (male 96%, female 84%) age 15 and over can read and write (1981)
Nationality
noun--Yugoslav(s); adjective--Yugoslav
Net migration rate
0 migrants/1,000 population (1991)
Organized labor
badly fractured labor movement, with no unified national labor federation; several republics have competing union federations within their borders
Population
23,976,040 (July 1991), growth rate 0.6% (1991)
Religion
Eastern Orthodox 50%, Roman Catholic 30%, Muslim 9%, Protestant 1%, other 10%
Total fertility rate
1.9 children born/woman (1991)