Tajikistan has the lowest per capita GDP among the 15 former Soviet republics

Tajikistan is the only country in the post-Soviet space that under the new World Bank country classifications by income level is ranked among low-income countries.

The Monthly Macroeconomic Review released by the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) on August 11 notes that Tajikistan’s GDP per capita  for 2021 stood at 878.00 U.S. dollars.

As far as other member nations of the EDB are concerned, GDP per capita for 2021 stood at 4,679 USD in Armenia, 7,333 USD in Belarus, 10,155 USD in Kazakhstan, and 12,196 USD in Russia.  

According to the Agency for Statistics under the President of Tajikistan, based on current data, the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) for 2021 was 98.9 billion somonis (equivalent to 8.8 billion USD).

As of January 1, 2022, the country’s population was estimated at 9,934,400.  

The agrarian sector still prevails in Tajikistan’s GDP.

Last year, Tajikistan’s GDP structure by sources of income included: agriculture – 24.1 percent; industry – 182 percent; trade – 14.3 percent; construction – 8.1 percent; transport and other sectors – 8.1 percent. 

Meanwhile, according to data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the most favorable indicators in terms of GDP per capita for 2021 among the former Soviet republics formed as expected in the Baltic republics: 27,100 USD in Estonia; 22,411 USD in Lithuania; and 19,538 USD in Latvia.  

In the remaining six former Soviet republics GDP per capital last year stood at 8,843 USD in Turkmenistan, 5,1657 USD in Azerbaijan, 4,960 in Ukraine, 4,807 in Georgia, 4,791 in Moldova, and 1,901 USD in Uzbekistan.  

Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced in a specific time period by countries.  Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is often revised before being considered a reliable indicator.

GDP per capita is the sum of gross value added by all resident producers in the economy plus any product taxes (less subsidies) not included in the valuation of output, divided by mid-year population. Growth is calculated from constant price GDP data in local currency.

World Bank country classifications by income level: 2021-2022

The World Bank on July 1, 2021 assigned the world’s economies to four income groups—low, lower-middle, upper-middle, and high-income countries. The classifications are updated each year on July 1 and are based on GNI per capita in current USD (using the Atlas method exchange rates) of the previous year (i.e. 2020 in this case).

The classifications change for two reasons:

–           In each country, factors such as economic growth, inflation, exchange rates, and population growth influence GNI per capita. Revisions to national accounts methods and data can also have an influence in specific cases.

–           To keep the income classification thresholds fixed in real terms, they are adjusted annually for inflation. The Special Drawing Rights (SDR) deflator is used, which is a weighted average of the GDP deflators of China, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Euro Area. This year, the thresholds moved up in line with this inflation measure.