Overview: Turkmenistan is a largely desert country with nomadic cattle raising, intensive agriculture in irrigated oases, and huge gas and oil resources. Half of its irrigated land is planted in cotton; it is the world's tenth largest producer. It also is the world's fourth largest producer of natural gas and has the fifth largest reserves. Furthermore, Turkmenistan has substantial oil resources; its two oil refineries make it an exporter of refined products. Profiting from the move toward market prices for its oil and gas resources, Turkmenistan has suffered the least economic decline of the 15 states of the former USSR. With an authoritarian ex-Communist regime in power and a tribally based social structure, Turkmenistan has taken a cautious approach to questions of economic reform, using the profits from its gas and cotton exports to sustain a generally inefficient economy. Economic restructuring and privatization have just begun, and price liberalization and price increases have been accompanied by generous wage hikes and subsidies. At the same time, Turkmenistan faces serious constraints on its gas and oil earnings because of the inability of its traditional regional customers to pay for the current level of purchases and the lack of pipeline access to hard currency markets. Faced with financial shortfalls, rampant inflation, and the desire to ensure a stable currency, the regime has become more receptive to market reforms yet still seeks to offer widespread social benefits to its population and to retain state domination over the economy.

National product: GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $13 billion (1993 estimate from the UN International Comparison Program, as extended to 1991 and published in the World Bank's World Development Report 1993; and as extrapolated to 1993 using official Turkmen statistics, which are very uncertain because of major economic changes since 1990)

National product real growth rate: 7.8% (1993 est.)

National product per capita: $3,330 (1993 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 45% per month (1993 est.)

Unemployment rate: 2.9% (1992 est.); includes only officially registered unemployed; also large number of underemployed

Budget:
revenues: $NA
expenditures: $NA, including capital expenditures of $NA

Exports: $1.2 billion to states outside the FSU (1993)
commodities: natural gas, cotton, petroleum products, textiles, carpets
partners: Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Eastern Europe, Turkey, Argentina

Imports: $490 million from states outside the FSU (1993)
commodities: machinery and parts, grain and food, plastics and rubber, consumer durables, textiles
partners: Russia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkey

External debt: NEGL

Industrial production: growth rate 5.3% (1993)

Electricity:
capacity: 2,920,000 kW
production: 13.1 billion kWh
consumption per capita: 3,079 kWh (1992)

Industries: natural gas, oil, petroleum products, textiles, food processing

Agriculture: cotton, grain, animal husbandry

Illicit drugs: illicit producer of cannabis and opium; mostly for CIS consumption; limited government eradication program; used as transshipment points for illicit drugs from Southwest Asia to Western Europe

Economic aid:
recipient: Turkmenistan has received about $200 million in bilateral aid credits

Currency: Turkmenistan introduced its national currency, the manat, on 1 November 1993
Exchange rates: NA

Fiscal year: calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Turkmenistan on this page is re-published from the 1995 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Turkmenistan Economy 1995 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Turkmenistan Economy 1995 should be addressed to the CIA.