South Sudan
imported 537 million USD worth of goods in 2014. Over half consisted of food and food products, while a third of the goods were machinery and transportation products. In the same year, South Sudan’s
exports totaled 4.03 billion USD. The country’s main export is crude petroleum, which accounts vastly for 99% of the load, and 60% of the
GDP. South Sudan is the most oil-dependent country in the world. China is the chief consumer of the product, purchasing 98% of this natural resource. These figures make South Sudan’s global market incredibly vulnerable. The current conflict in the country is highly detrimental to the country’s economic productivity. In 2015, the country’s GDP
dropped 5% because of the conflict. Conversely, the 2014 positive trade balance was a good sign to the nation’s wealth. The balance may be a huge factor in the (13%)
rise of GDP per capita prior to the conflict. If the country can find peace it has hope for its GDP to rise. Unfortunately, this positive balance of is not found within the country. Only 10% of people in the country
work in industry or commerce jobs, so the distribution of wealth is poor. For those working outside the oil sector, which is approximately 80% of the population, wages are low or unpaid. This large sector of informal agricultural work accounts for only 15% of the
GDP. This is because the majority of this work is done by unpaid households that are living off of subsistence farming. The remaining
work is governmental, and the
unemployment rate is 12%.