Economy (Turkmenistan)
======================


     Overview:
         Like the other 15 former Soviet republics, Turkmenistan faces enormous
         problems of economic adjustment - to move away from Moscow-based central
         planning toward a system of decisionmaking by private enterpreneurs, local
         government authorities, and, hopefully, foreign investors. This process
         requires wholesale changes in supply sources, markets, property rights, and
         monetary arrangements. Industry - with 10% of the labor force - is heavily
         weighted toward the energy sector, which produced 11% of the ex-USSR's gas
         and 1% of its oil. Turkmenistan ranked second among the former Soviet
         republics in cotton production, mainly in the irrigated western region,
         where the huge Karakumskiy Canal taps the Amu Darya.
     GDP:
         purchasing power equivalent - NA, per capita $NA; real growth rate -0.6%
         (1991 est.)
     Inflation rate (consumer prices):
         85% (1991)
     Unemployment rate:
         20-25% (1991 est.)
     Budget:
         NA
     Exports:
         $239 million (1990)
       commodities:
         natural gas, oil, chemicals, cotton, textiles, carpets
       partners:
         Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan
     Imports:
         $970 million (1990)
       commodities:
         machinery and parts, plastics and rubber, consumer durables, textiles
       partners:
         NA
     External debt:
         $650 million (end of 1991 est.)
     Industrial production:
         growth rate 4.1% (1991)
     Electricity:
         3,170,000 kW capacity; 14,900 million kWh produced, 4,114 kWh per capita
         (1990)
     Industries:
         oil and gas, petrochemicals, fertilizers, food processing, textiles
     Agriculture:
         cotton, fruits, vegetables
     Illicit drugs:
         illicit producers of cannabis and opium; mostly for domestic consumption;
         status of government eradication programs unknown; used as transshipment
         points for illicit drugs to Western Europe
     Economic aid:
         NA
     Currency:
         As of May 1992, retaining ruble as currency
     Exchange rates:
         NA
     Fiscal year:
         calendar year