III.

Economy

The leading exports are copra, vanilla, mother-of-pearl, and cultured pearls (in the mid-1990s French Polynesia was producing more than 95 per cent of the world’s supply). Subsistence activities include fishing and the culture of tropical fruits. Tourism, a growing business, is very important to the economy. Nuclear testing developed in the 1960s. The unit of currency is the CFP franc which, since January 1, 2002, has been tied to the Euro; as at early 2005, 0.77 Euros equalled US$1.