Tajikistan is experiencing its slowest economic growth in two decades. The World Bank notes that as the outbreak of COVID-19 slashed external and domestic demand, the authorities responded with fiscal and monetary stimuli to support the economy.
Amendments to the 2020 state budget reportedly doubled expenditures on healthcare and expanded social transfers. The World Bank projects growth to slow to 1.6 percent in 2020 as a whole and the pace of poverty alleviation to weaken.
Poverty was reportedly falling steadily in Tajikistan before the COID-19 outbreak, but this progress was uneven.
Between 2018 and 2019, Khatlon Province and Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) reportedly experienced increasing poverty rates.
In contrast, Dushanbe, Districts Subordinate to the Center and Sughd Province experienced reduction in poverty rates.
Progress in rural areas reportedly stagnated. While urban poverty reclined from 21.5 percent to 18.4 percent, rural poverty stayed at level of 30.2 percent, between 2018 and 2019.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, poverty reduction is expected to slow down in the coming years, according to the World Bank.
World Bank’s COVID-19 and Human Capital: Europe and Central Asia Economic Update notes that the slowdown in the economy in 2020 likely adversely impacted both poor and non-poor households. At the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, two out of five households reported reducing their consumption of food, which is far above the 2019 level.
According to L2T Survey, 20 percent of families were not able to obtain medical care, and only 5 percent received any official aid through August 2020,.
