NZD

$NA

Market value of publicly traded shares:

$40.62 billion (2005)

Currency (code):

New Zealand dollar (NZD)

Currency code:

Exchange rates:

New Zealand dollars (NZD) per US dollar - 1.3811 (2007), 1.5408 (2006), 1.4203 (2005), 1.5087 (2004), 1.7221 (2003)

Communications
New Zealand

Telephones - main lines in use:

1.706 million (2007)

Telephones - mobile cellular:

4.245 million (2007)

Telephone system:

general assessment: excellent domestic and international systems domestic: NA international: country code - 64; the Southern Cross submarine cable system provides links to Australia, Fiji, and the US; satellite earth stations - 8 (1 Inmarsat - Pacific Ocean, 7 other)

Radio broadcast stations:

AM 124, FM 290, shortwave 4 (1998)

Radios:

3.75 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:

41 (plus about 700 repeaters) (1997)

Televisions:

1.926 million (1997)

Internet country code:

.nz

Internet hosts:

1.72 million (2008)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):

36 (2000)

Internet users:

3.36 million (2007)

Transportation
New Zealand

Airports:

121 (2007)

Airports - with paved runways:

total: 41 over 3,047 m: 2 2,438 to 3,047 m: 1 1,524 to 2,437 m: 11 914 to 1,523 m: 26 under 914 m: 1 (2007)

Airports - with unpaved runways:

total: 80 1,524 to 2,437 m: 3 914 to 1,523 m: 31 under 914 m: 46 (2007)

Pipelines:

condensate 331 km; gas 1,896 km; liquid petroleum gas 172 km; oil 288 km; refined products 260 km (2007)

Railways:

total: 4,128 km narrow gauge: 4,128 km 1.067-m gauge (506 km electrified) (2006)

Roadways:

total: 93,576 km paved: 61,564 km (includes 172 km of expressways) unpaved: 32,012 km (2006)

Merchant marine:

total: 13 by type: bulk carrier 3, cargo 2, chemical tanker 1, passenger/cargo 4, petroleum tanker 1, roll on/roll off 2 foreign-owned: 3 (Australia 1, Germany 1, South Africa 1) registered in other countries: 5 (Antigua and Barbuda 2, Cook Islands 1, France 1, UK 1) (2008)

Ports and terminals:

Auckland, Lyttelton, Marsden Point, Tauranga, Wellington, Whangarei

Military
New Zealand

Military branches:

New Zealand Defense Force (NZDF): New Zealand Army, Royal New
Zealand Navy, Royal New Zealand Air Force (2008)

Military service age and obligation:

17 years of age for voluntary military service; soldiers cannot be deployed until the age of 18; no conscription (2008)

Manpower available for military service:

males age 16-49: 1,009,298 females age 16-49: 997,134 (2008 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:

males age 16-49: 833,073 females age 16-49: 822,807 (2008 est.)

Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually:

male: 31,834 female: 30,243 (2008 est.)

Military expenditures:

1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues
New Zealand

Disputes - international:

asserts a territorial claim in Antarctica (Ross Dependency)

Illicit drugs:

significant consumer of amphetamines

This page was last updated on 18 December, 2008

@Nicaragua

Introduction
Nicaragua

Background:

The Pacific coast of Nicaragua was settled as a Spanish colony from Panama in the early 16th century. Independence from Spain was declared in 1821 and the country became an independent republic in 1838. Britain occupied the Caribbean Coast in the first half of the 19th century, but gradually ceded control of the region in subsequent decades. Violent opposition to governmental manipulation and corruption spread to all classes by 1978 and resulted in a short-lived civil war that brought the Marxist Sandinista guerrillas to power in 1979. Nicaraguan aid to leftist rebels in El Salvador caused the US to sponsor anti-Sandinista contra guerrillas through much of the 1980s. Free elections in 1990, 1996, and 2001, saw the Sandinistas defeated, but voting in 2006 announced the return of former Sandinista President Daniel ORTEGA Saavedra. Nicaragua's infrastructure and economy - hard hit by the earlier civil war and by Hurricane Mitch in 1998 - are slowly being rebuilt.

Geography
Nicaragua

Location:

Central America, bordering both the Caribbean Sea and the North
Pacific Ocean, between Costa Rica and Honduras

Geographic coordinates: