Turkmenistan Economy - 2004

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, making it at one time 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 1998-2003, 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 38% in 2003, 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, and the unwillingness of the government to adopt market-oriented reforms. However, Turkmenistan's cooperation with the international community in transporting humanitarian aid to Afghanistan may foreshadow a change in the atmosphere for foreign investment, aid, and technological support. Turkmenistan's economic statistics are state secrets, and GDP and other figures are subject to wide margins of error. In particular, the 20% rate of GDP growth is a guess.

GDP:
purchasing power parity - $27.07 billion (2003 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
20% (2003 est.)

GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $5,700 (2003 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 27%
industry: 50%
services: 23% (2001 est.)

Population below poverty line:
34.4% (2001 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):
11% (2003 est.)

Labor force:
2.34 million (1996)

Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture 48%, industry 15%, services 37% (1998 est.)

Unemployment rate:
NA% (2003 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $588.6 million
expenditures: $658.2 million, including capital expenditures of $NA (1999 est.)

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

Industrial production growth rate:
14% (2003 est.)

Electricity - production:
10.18 billion kWh (2001)

Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel: 99.9%
hydro: 0.1%
other: 0% (2001)
nuclear: 0%

Electricity - consumption:
8.509 billion kWh (2001)

Electricity - exports:
980 million kWh (2001)

Electricity - imports:
20 million kWh (2001)

Oil - production:
162,500 bbl/day (2001 est.)

Oil - consumption:
63,000 bbl/day (2001 est.)

Oil - exports:
NA

Oil - imports:
NA

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

Natural gas - production:
48.2 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
9.6 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
38.6 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
0 cu m (2001 est.)

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

Agriculture - products:
cotton, grain; livestock

Exports:
$3.355 billion f.o.b. (2003 est.)

Exports - commodities:
gas 57%, oil 26%, cotton fiber 3%, textiles 2% (2001)

Exports - partners:
Ukraine 49.7%, Italy 18%, Iran 13.1%, Turkey 6.2% (2002)

Imports:
$2.472 billion f.o.b. (2003 est.)

Imports - commodities:
machinery and equipment 60%, foodstuffs 15% (1999)

Imports - partners:
Russia 19.8%, Turkey 12.9%, Ukraine 11.7%, UAE 10%, US 7.5%, China 6%, Germany 5.7%, Iran 4.5% (2002)

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

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

Currency:
Turkmen manat (TMM)

Currency code:
TMM

Exchange rates:
Turkmen manats per US dollar - 5,200 (2003), 5,200 (2002), 5,200 (2001), 5,200 (2000), 5,200 (1999);note - the official exchange rate has not varied for the last six years; the unofficial rate has fluctuated slightly, hovering around 21,000 manats to the dollar