Part 768

GDP composition by sector: agriculture: 32.5% industry: 33.4% services: 34.1% (1991 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 25% monthly average (1994 est.)

Labor force: 1.642 million (January 1994) by occupation: agriculture and forestry 44%, industry and construction 20%, other 36% (1992)

Unemployment rate: NA%

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

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

Industrial production growth rate: -7% (1995)

Electricity: capacity: 2,480,000 kW production: 9.8 billion kWh consumption per capita: 2,400 kWh (1995)

Agriculture: cotton, grain; livestock

Illicit drugs: illicit cultivator of cannabis and opium poppy; mostly for CIS consumption; limited government eradication program; used as transshipment point for illicit drugs from Southwest Asia to Western Europe

Exports: $1.9 billion to states outside the FSU (1995) commodities: natural gas, cotton, petroleum products, electricity, textiles, carpets partners: Ukraine, Russia, Kazakstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Eastern Europe, Turkey, Argentina

Imports: $777 million from states outside the FSU (1995) commodities: machinery and parts, grain and food, plastics and rubber, consumer durables, textiles partners: Russia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakstan, Turkey

External debt: $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: Turkmenistan introduced its national currency, the manat, on 1 November 1993

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

Fiscal year: calendar year

Transportation --------------

Railways: total: 2,120 km in common carrier service; does not include industrial lines broad gauge: 2,120 km 1.520-m gauge (1990)

Highways: total: 23,000 km paved: NA km unpaved: NA km (1990 est.)

Waterways: the Amu Darya is an important inland waterway

Pipelines: crude oil 250 km; natural gas 4,400 km

Ports: Turkmenbashi (formerly Krasnowodsk)

Airports: total: 64 with paved runways 2 438 to 3 047 m: 13 with paved runways 1 524 to 2 437 m: 8 with paved runways 914 to 1 523 m: 1 with unpaved runways 914 to 1 523 m: 7 with unpaved runways under 914 m: 35 (1994 est.)

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: AM NA, FM NA, shortwave NA; note - there is at least one state-owned radio broadcast station of NA type