BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 18
By Jeila Aliyeva - Trend:
Asia Development Bank (ADB) has updated its forecast for Turkmenistan’s economy according to which the expected GDP growth rate fell from 6.0 percent to 3.2 percent in 2020, Trend reports citing the ADB’s review.
ADB has also updated its forecast for the country for 2021, where no changes were made, which means last forecast of 5.8 percent of GDP growth remains the same.
Meanwhile, Turkmenistan's forecasted inflation for 2020 is down.
According to ADB's forecast, Turkmenistan's inflation rate in 2020 decreases from 13.0 percent in last review to 8.0 percent, for 2021, it is forecasted to stand unchanged at 8.0 percent.
Given that COVID-19 has continued to spread, the restrictive measures have affected countries’ economic activity, according to ADB.
“Despite the absence of officially reported COVID-19 cases, the economy of Turkmenistan has been hit hard by trade disruption and low oil and gas prices,” experts said.
“In response, many governments have imposed lockdowns of varying stringency and duration, with average stringency higher in South and Central Asia and lower in East Asia. Many economies are now starting to exit their lockdowns,” says the review.
“The COVID-19 pandemic prompts a downward adjustment to the 2020 projection for Central Asia from 2.8% growth to 0.5% contraction. The 4.2% growth projection for 2021 is unchanged,” the report says.
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