NOV. 12 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan’s gas-powered economy is still booming and will continue to grow rapidly in the future. That’s the latest assessment, in any case, from the IMF.
The IMF said growth would top 10% in 2013 and 2014, slightly lower than the previous two year. Even with the slight growth rate slowdown, Turkmenistan still has one of the fastest growing economies. Most of the growth is coming from exploiting huge natural gas reserves, the fourth largest in the world.
China has become Turkmenistan’s biggest customer, taking over from Russia, but other smaller clients are also playing an increasingly major role.
This dependence on gas, though, is also a potential weakness, the IMF warned. It said that a sharp downturn in the global price of gas could pose real problems for the Turkmen economy.
It also said that Turkmenistan needs to relax currency rules and reform its mainly state-run banking sector.
Alongside gas, cotton has become an increasingly important part of Turkmenistan’s economy. This week, Turkmenistan said it was looking to pull in $1b worth of investment to build factories to process raw cotton into goods.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)