Overview: Tajikistan has had the lowest living standards of the CIS republics and now faces the bleakest economic prospects. Agriculture (particularly cotton and fruit growing) is the most important sector, accounting for 38% of employment (1990). Industrial production includes aluminum reduction, hydropower generation, machine tools, refrigerators, and freezers. Throughout 1992 bloody civil disturbances disrupted food imports and several regions became desperately short of basic needs. Hundreds of thousands of people were made homeless by the strife. In late 1992, one-third of industry was shut down and the cotton crop was only one-half of that of 1991.

National product: GDP $NA

National product real growth rate: -34% (1992 est.)

National product per capita: $NA

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 35% per month (first quarter 1993)

Unemployment rate: 0.4% includes only officially registered unemployed; also large numbers of underemployed workers

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

External debt: $650 million (end of 1991 est.)

Industrial production: growth rate -25% (1992 est.)

Electricity: 4,585,000 kW capacity; 16,800 million kWh produced, 2,879 kWh per capita (1992)

Industries: aluminum, zinc, lead, chemicals and fertilizers, cement, vegetable oil, metal-cutting machine tools, refrigerators and freezers

Agriculture: cotton, grain, fruits, grapes, vegetables; cattle, pigs, sheep and goats, yaks

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

Economic aid: $700 million offical and commitments by foreign donors (1992)

Currency: retaining Russian ruble as currency (January 1993)

Exchange rates: rubles per US$1 - 415 (24 December 1992) but subject to wide fluctuations

Fiscal year: calendar year