The economy of Lesotho is based on tourism, manufacturing, mining, and agriculture, and depends heavily on remittances from its diaspora.

[5][6] Lesotho, a lower middle income country, is geographically surrounded by South Africa and is economically integrated with it as well.

A significant portion of the population subsists on farming with a gradual ongoing transition into tourism and manufacturing.

Nonetheless, the country has completed several IMF Structural Adjustment Programs, and inflation declined substantially over the course of the 1990s.

The global economic crisis hit the Lesotho economy hard through loss of textile exports and jobs in the sector due largely to the economic slowdown in the United States which is a major export destination, reduced diamond mining and exports, including weak prices for diamonds; drop in SACU revenues due to the economic slowdown in the South African economy, and reduction in worker remittances due to weakening of the South African economy and contraction of the mining sector and related job losses in South Africa.

[5] Lesotho's progress in moving from a predominantly subsistence-oriented economy to a lower middle income, diversified economy exporting natural resources and manufacturing goods has brought higher, more secure incomes to a significant portion of the population.

Lesotho has taken advantage of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) to become the largest exporter of garments to the US from sub-Saharan Africa.

[9] American Brands and retailers sourcing from Lesotho include: Foot Locker, Gap, Gloria Vanderbilt, JCPenney, Levi Strauss, Saks, Sears, Timberland and Wal-Mart.

[14] Prior to the 1950s, Basotho women migrated to South Africa for work due to an agricultural decline.

The amendment caused a decline in migration of female labor, and by the 1970s, only 36.1% of women over age 39 in Lesotho had worked in South Africa.

The LHWP is designed to capture, store, and transfer water from the Orange River system and send it to South Africa's Free State and greater Johannesburg area, which features a large concentration of South African industry, population and agriculture.

US$ nominal) Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: 0.9% highest 10%: 43.4% (1986–87) Industrial production growth rate: 3% (2010) Electricity - consumption: 626 GWh (2010/11) Agriculture - products: maize, wheat, pulses, sorghum, barley; livestock Currency: 1 loti (L) = 100 lisente; note - maloti (M) is the plural form of loti Exchange rates: maloti (M) per US$1 – 7.32 (2010), 6.10948 (1999), 3.62709 (1995); note - the Basotho loti is at par with the South African rand World portal