DUSHANBE, September 24, 2009, Asia-Plus — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) expects a balance of payments deficit in Tajikistan to stand at percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010.
According to ADB’s Resident Mission in Tajikistan, the Asian Development Outlook 2009 Update (ADO 2009 Update), released on September 22, says that in Tajikistan, the balance of payments deficit is expected to stand at 8.8 percent by the end of this year.
In Kazakhstan, the balance of payments deficit is expected to stand at 2 percent in 2009 and 0.5 percent in 2010 and in Kyrgyzstan, the balance of payment deficit is expected to stand at 8.5 and 9.5 percent respectively.
A positive balance of payments is reported in Turkmenistan (30% in 2009 and 25% in 2010) and in Uzbekistan (11 and 10.5 percent respectively)
In the Central Asian region as a whole, the balance of payments surplus is expected to stand at 1.9 percent of GDP in 2009 and at 2.7 percent in 2010.
The ADO 2009 Update says that the 1997-98 Asian Financial Crisis and the current global economic crisis exposed the region to the risks of unbalanced openness. The former crisis underscored the risk from excessive financial openness, the latter, excessive trade openness. A key lesson learned from the Asian Financial Crisis is the need for strong domestic institutional capacity to manage financial globalization. Developing Asia successfully reformed its financial systems in the wake of the 1997-98 crisis, boosting its resilience to financial shocks and to a large degree shielding it from the adverse effects of the current global financial crisis.
ADO 2009 Update promotes broadening the scope and structure of the region”s flows of trade, capital, and workers by: 1) strengthening intra-regional trade; 2) effectively managing financial globalization; and 3) maximizing the benefits from labor mobility.
