1919552
Sesotho (official) (southern Sotho), English (official), Zulu, Xhosa
MASERU (capital) 267,000 (2014)
- Conventional long form
- Kingdom of Lesotho
- Conventional short form
- Lesotho
- Local long form
- Kingdom of Lesotho
- Local short form
- Lesotho
parliamentary constitutional monarchy
- Name
- Maseru
- Geographic coordinates
- 29 19 S, 27 29 E
- Time difference
- UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)
accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction with reservations; accepts ICCt jurisdiction
Small, mountainous, and completely landlocked by South Africa, Lesotho depends on a narrow economic base of textile manufacturing, agriculture, remittances, and regional customs revenue. About three-fourths of the people live in rural areas and engage in animal herding and subsistence agriculture, although Lesotho produces less than 20% of the nation's demand for food. Agriculture is vulnerable to weather and climate variability.
- Inflation
- 6.609%
- External debt stocks
- US$ 879,830,000
- Total tax rate (% of commercial profits)
- 13.6%
- Real Interest Rate
- 5.309%
- Manufacturing, value added (% of GDP)
- 10.739%
- Current Account Balance
- US$ -200,609,184
- Labor Force, Total
- 947,594
- Employment in Agriculture
- 12.10%
- Employment in Industry
- 41.73%
- Employment in Services
- 45.51%
- Unemployment Rate
- 27.42%
- Imports of goods and services
- US$ 2,048,844,336
- Exports of goods and services
- US$ 928,528,321
- Total Merchandise Trade
- 124.45%
- FDI, net inflows
- US$ 80,434,060
- Commercial Service Exports
- US$ 42,542,056
corn, wheat, pulses, sorghum, barley; livestock
food, beverages, textiles, apparel assembly, handicrafts, construction, tourism
- Commodities
- manufactures (clothing, footwear), wool and mohair, food and live animals, electricity, water, diamonds
- Partners
- Commodities
- food; building materials, vehicles, machinery, medicines, petroleum products
- Partners