Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan to be hardest hit by European downturn
- Written by Central Asia Newswire
BISHKEK, Nov 29 (Central Asia Newswire). The two poorest Central Asian states will the ones hardest hit by a downturn inEurope’s economy, a top banker from the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) said on Monday.
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan rely heavily on remittances sent by migrant workers in Russia and Kazakhstan, which may be hard-hit in tough economic times, EDB’s Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board Sergey Shatalov told the Dow Jones Newswires.
“We may find ourselves in the situation of 2009, when all those working in Russia or Kyrgyzstan stopped wiring money home, leaving their domestic economies without a valuable chunk of income,” Shatalov said.
However, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan will not be the only regional nations to be affected by a slowdown in the European economy.
Kazakhstan, Central Asia’s largest economy, will also feel the effect as it exports substantial levels of commodities to European markets.
Shatalov encouraged post-Soviet states to tighten their budgets to prepare for a substantial downswing in the global economy.
