Lesotho

Basutoland was renamed the Kingdom of Lesotho upon independence from the UK in 1966. The Basuto National Party ruled for the first two decades. King MOSHOESHOE was exiled in 1990, but returned to Lesotho in 1992 and was reinstated in 1995. Constitutional government was restored in 1993 after seven years of military rule. In 1998, violent protests and a military mutiny following a contentious election prompted a brief but bloody intervention by South African and Botswana military forces under the aegis of the Southern African Development Community. Subsequent constitutional reforms restored relative political stability. Peaceful parliamentary elections were held in 2002, but the National Assembly elections of February 2007 were hotly contested and aggrieved parties continue to dispute how the electoral law was applied to award proportional seats in the Assembly.
==Economical characteristics==
* Currency: Lesotho loti/Loti (ISO code: LSL)
* Central bank discount rate: 10.66% (31 December 2009)
* Commercial banks lending rate: 13% (31 December 2009 )
* Stock of money (M1): $416.5 million (31 December 2008)
* Quasi money (with M1 makes M2): $108.1 million (31 December 2008)
===Statistics===
Statistic / Year 	1999 	2000 	2001 	2002 	2003 	2004 	2005 	2006 	2007 	2008
GDP (million USD)World Bank. "Lesotho: GDP", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-10-04. 	808 	783 	711 	670 	994 	1 290 	1 376 	1 518 	1 670 	1 622
Govt. debt (% of GDP)World Bank. "Lesotho: government debt", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-10-04. 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
Govt. revenue (% of GDP)World Bank. "Lesotho: government revenue", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-10-04. 	46.824	48.302	45.549	42.987	46.119	51.048	51.815	63.175	60.502	65.258
Govt. expenses (% of GDP)World Bank. "Lesotho: government expenses", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-10-04.	 	 	42.150	42.235	40.372	40.006	41.704	45.308	44.009	51.184
Debt to revenue (years) 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
==References==
Note: statistical data was rounded. Different sources may use different methodologies for their estimates. Debt to revenue is calculated by dividing the two variables from their original ('unrounded') values. It represents how long it would a government take to repay its entire debt if it used its whole revenue for this purpose.
==External links==
* Lesotho on Wikipedia
* Central bank of Lesotho
* Country profile (pdf) from the Enterprise Studies page (part of the The World Bank Group)
* BBC country profile
Category:Countries