Economy Turkmenistan
Economy - overview:
Turkmenistan is 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 a
nearly 46% 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 1998-2004,
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
perhaps 30% in 2003 and 19% in 2004, largely because of higher
international oil and gas prices. 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):
$27.6 billion (2004 est.)
GDP - real growth rate: IMF estimate: 7.5% note: official government statistics show 21.4% growth, but these estimates are notoriously unreliable (2004 est.)
GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $5,700 (2004 est.)
GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 28.5% industry: 42.7% services: 28.8% (2004 est.)
Labor force:
2.32 million (2003 est.)
Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture 48.2%, industry 13.8%, services 37% (2003 est.)
Unemployment rate:
60% (2004 est.)
Population below poverty line:
58% (2003 est.)