orking hard to open new gas export channels through Iran and
Turkey to Europe, but these will take many years to realize.

GDP: purchasing power parity-$12.5 billion (1996 est.)

GDP-real growth rate: -0.3% (1996)

GDP-per capita: purchasing power parity-$3,000 (1996 est.)

GDP-composition by sector:
agriculture: 18%
industry: 50%
services: 32% (1996 est.)

Inflation rate-consumer price index: 992% (1996 est.)

Labor force:
total: 2.34 million (1996)
by occupation: agriculture and forestry 44%, industry and construction
19%, other 37% (1996)

Unemployment rate: NA%

Budget:
revenues: $521 million
expenditures: $548 million, including capital expenditures of $83
million (1996 est.)

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

Industrial production growth rate: NA%

Electricity-capacity: 3.95 million kW (1995)

Electricity-production: 9.204 billion kWh (1995)

Electricity-consumption per capita: 2,013 kWh (1995)

Agriculture-products: cotton, grain; livestock

Exports:
total value: $1.7 billion to states outside the FSU (1996)
commodities: natural gas, cotton, petroleum products, textiles,
electricity, carpets
partners: FSU, Hong Kong, Switzerland, US, Germany, Turkey (1996)

Imports:
total value: $1.5 billion from states outside the FSU (1996)
commodities: machinery and parts, grain and food, plastics and rubber,
consumer durables, textiles
partners: FSU, US, Turkey, Germany, Cyprus (1996)

Debt-external: $400 million (of which $275 million to Russia) (1995
est.)

Economic aid:
recipient: ODA, $10 million (1993)
note: commitments, $1,830 million ($375 million drawn), 1992-95

Currency: 1 Tukmen manat (TMM) = 100 tenesi; Turkmenistan introduced
its national currency on 1 November 1993

Exchange rates: manats per US$1-4,070 (January 1997), 2,400 (January
1996)
note: government established a unified rate in mid-January 1996

Fiscal year: calendar year

Communications

Telephones: NA

Telephone system: poorly developed
domestic: NA
international: linked by cable and microwave radio relay to other CIS
republics and to other countries by leased connections to the Moscow
international gateway switch; a new telephone link from Ashgabat to
Iran has been established; a new exchange in Ashgabat switches
international traffic through Turkey via Intelsat; satellite earth
stations-1 Orbita and 1 Intelsat

Radio broadcast stations: 1 state-owned radio broadca