Terrain: Northern four-fifths barren desert; southern 20% mainly Sahelian with small-scale irrigated and rain-fed agriculture in the Senegal River basin. Climate: Predominantly hot and dry.
Government:
Type: Republic.
Independence: November 28, 1960.
Constitution: Approved 1991. Original constitution promulgated 1961.
Branches: Executive--president (head of state). Legislative--bicameral national assembly, directly elected lower house (81 members), and upper house (56 members) chosen indirectly by municipal councilors. Judicial--a supreme court and lower courts are nominally independent but subject to control of executive branch; judicial decisions are rendered mainly on the basis of Shari'a (Islamic law) for social/family matters and a western style legal code, applied in commercial and some criminal cases.
Political parties: 21.
Suffrage: Universal at 18.
National day: November 28, Independence Day.
Economy:
GDP (2003): $1.1 billion.
Annual growth rate (2003): 2.7%.
Per capita income (2003): $430.
Natural resources: petroleum, fish, iron ore, gypsum, copper, phosphates, salt.
Agriculture (19.3% of GDP 2003): Products--livestock, traditional fisheries, millet, maize, wheat, dates, rice.
Industry (30% of GDP 2003): Types--iron mining, fishing.
Services (50.8% of GDP 2003).
Trade: Exports (f.o.b.)--$388 million (2003). Export partners--Japan 13%, France 10.9%, Spain 9.6%, Italy 9.5%, Germany 8.7%, Belgium 7.4%, China 5.8%, Russia 4.8% (2004). Imports--$418 million (2002): foodstuffs, machinery, tools, petroleum products, and consumer goods. Import partners--France 14.5%, U.S. 7.7%, China 7.4%, Spain 5.9%, Belgium 4.3%, U.K. 4.3% (2004).
Currency: Ouguiya (UM).
USAID: Total FY 2005 USAID assistance to Mauritania--$14,160,300.
