YUGOSLAVIA
GEOGRAPHY
Total area: 255,800 km2; land area: 255,400 km2
Comparative area: slightly larger than Wyoming
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
Coastline: 3,935 km (including 2,414 km offshore islands)
Maritime claims:
Continental shelf: 200 m (depth) or to depth of exploitation;
Territorial sea: 12 nm
Disputes: Kosovo question with Albania; Macedonia question with
Bulgaria and Greece
Climate: temperate; hot, relatively dry summers with mild, rainy
winters along coast; warm summer with cold winters inland
Terrain: mostly mountains with large areas of karst topography;
plain in north
Natural resources: coal, copper, bauxite, timber, iron ore,
antimony, chromium, lead, zinc, asbestos, mercury, crude oil, natural
gas, nickel, uranium
Land use: arable land 28%; permanent crops 3%; meadows and pastures
25%; forest and woodland 36%; other 8%; includes irrigated 1%
Environment: subject to frequent and destructive earthquakes
Note: controls the most important land routes from
central and western Europe to Aegean Sea and Turkish straits
PEOPLE
Population: 23,976,040 (July 1991), growth rate 0.6% (1991)
Birth rate: 14 births/1,000 population (1991)
Death rate: 9 deaths/1,000 population (1991)
Net migration rate: 0 migrants/1,000 population (1991)
Infant mortality rate: 21 deaths/1,000 live births (1991)
Life expectancy at birth: 70 years male, 76 years female (1991)
Total fertility rate: 1.9 children born/woman (1991)
Nationality: noun--Yugoslav(s); adjective--Yugoslav
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)
Religion: Eastern Orthodox 50%, Roman Catholic 30%, Muslim 9%,
Protestant 1%, other 10%
Language: Serbo-Croatian, Slovene, Macedonian (all official);
Albanian, Hungarian
Literacy: 90% (male 96%, female 84%) age 15 and over can
read and write (1981)
Labor force: 9,600,000; agriculture 22%, mining and manufacturing
27%; about 5% of labor force are guest workers in Western Europe (1986)
Organized labor: badly fractured labor movement, with no unified
national labor federation; several republics have competing union
federations within their borders
GOVERNMENT
Long-form name: Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia;
abbreviated SFRY
Type: federal republic in form; four of six republics have
non-Communist governments
Capital: Belgrade
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
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
Constitution: 21 February 1974, amendments to the Constitution
have passed the Federal Assembly and are being considered at the
republic level
Legal system: mixture of civil law system and Communist legal
theory; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction; a new legal
code is being formulated
National holiday: Proclamation of the Socialist Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia, 29 November (1945)
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
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
Judicial branch: Federal Court (Savezna Sud), Constitutional Court
Leaders:
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)
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
Elections: direct federal elections may never be held because of
inter-republic differences over Yugoslavia's future structure
Other political or pressure groups: there are no national
political groups; all significant groups are found within the republics
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
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
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: 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.
GNP: $120.1 billion, per capita $5,040; real growth rate - 6.3%
(1990 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 164% (1990)
Unemployment rate: 16% (1990)
Budget: revenues $6.4 billion; expenditures $6.4 billion, including
capital expenditures of $NA (1990)
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%
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%
External debt: $18.0 billion, medium and long term (December 1990)
Industrial production: growth rate - 10.9% (1990)
Electricity: 21,000,000 kW capacity; 83,400 million kWh produced,
3,500 kWh per capita (1990)
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
Economic aid: donor--about $3.5 billion in bilateral aid to
non-Communist less developed countries (1966-89)
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--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
Fiscal year: calendar year
COMMUNICATIONS
Railroads: 9,349 km total; (all 1.435-meter standard gauge)
including 931 km double track, 3,760 km electrified (1988)
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)
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: 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
Civil air: 57 major transport aircraft
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
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
Branches: Yugoslav People's Army--Ground Forces, Naval Forces, Air
and Air Defense Forces, Frontier Guard, Territorial Defense Force, Civil
Defense
Manpower availability: males 15-49, 6,176,693; 5,001,024 fit for
military service; 189,886 reach military age (19) annually
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