Turkmenistan Economy - 2006

Economy - overview:
Turkmenistan is a largely desert country with intensive agriculture in irrigated oases and large gas and oil resources. One-half of its irrigated land is planted in cotton; formerly it was the world's tenth-largest producer. Poor harvests in recent years have led to an almost 50% decline in cotton exports. With an authoritarian ex-Communist regime in power and a tribally based social structure, Turkmenistan has taken a cautious approach to economic reform, hoping to use gas and cotton sales to sustain its inefficient economy. Privatization goals remain limited. In 1998-2005, Turkmenistan suffered from the continued lack of adequate export routes for natural gas and from obligations on extensive short-term external debt. At the same time, however, total exports rose by 20% to 30% per year in 2003-2005, largely because of higher international oil and gas prices. In 2005, Ashgabat sought to raise natural gas export prices to its main customers, Russia and Ukraine, from $44 per thousand cubic meters (tcm) to $66 per tcm. Overall prospects in the near future are discouraging because of widespread internal poverty, the burden of foreign debt, the government's irrational use of oil and gas revenues, and its unwillingness to adopt market-oriented reforms. Turkmenistan's economic statistics are state secrets, and GDP and other figures are subject to wide margins of error. In particular, the rate of GDP growth is uncertain.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
$30.02 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
$14.13 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
IMF estimate: 11%
note: official government statistics show 21.4% growth, but these estimates are widely regarded as unreliable (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
$6,100 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 26.9%
industry: 39.5%
services: 33.6% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
2.32 million (2003 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture: 48.2%
industry: 13.8%
services: 38% (2003 est.)

Unemployment rate:
60% (2004 est.)

Population below poverty line:
58% (2003 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 2.6%
highest 10%: 31.7% (1998)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
40.8 (1998)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
10% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
25.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $1.401 billion
expenditures: $1.542 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
cotton, grain; livestock

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

Industrial production growth rate:
22% (2003 est.)

Electricity - production:
11.41 billion kWh (2004 est.)

Electricity - consumption:
8.847 billion kWh (2002)

Electricity - exports:
1.136 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - imports:
0 kWh (2002)

Oil - production:
203,400 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - consumption:
80,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
273 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
54.6 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
15.5 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
38.6 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
0 cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
2.01 trillion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
-$204.3 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
$4.7 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
gas, crude oil, petrochemicals, cotton fiber, textiles

Exports - partners:
Ukraine 46.6%, Iran 17.3%, Turkey 4.2%, Italy 4.1% (2004)

Imports:
$4.175 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
machinery and equipment, chemicals, foodstuffs

Imports - partners:
US 11.8%, Russia 9.7%, UAE 9.2%, Ukraine 9%, Turkey 8.6%, Germany 8%, France 5%, Georgia 4.6%, Iran 4.5% (2004)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
$3.358 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
$2.4 billion to $5 billion (2001 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
$16 million from the US (2001)

Currency (code):
Turkmen manat (TMM)

Exchange rates:
in recent years the unofficial rate has hovered around 24,000 to 25,000 Turkmen manats to the dollar; the official rate has consistently been 5,200 manat to the dollar