DUSHANBE (TCA) — In his annual address to the Parliament of Tajikistan on December 26, President Emomali Rahmon tasked the Tajik Government to ensure the country’s economic growth at 7-8 percent during the next seven years, Avesta news agency reported.
According to the president, this year Tajikistan’s GDP grew by 7.5 percent, with the growth in industry at 13.4 percent, in agriculture at 7.1 percent, in trade at 8.1 percent, and in the services sector at 1.6 percent.
“Over the past seven years, the country’s GDP has grown from 45.6 billion somoni in 2013 up to 78 billion somoni in 2019. The state budget revenues have increased twofold. In particular, in 2013 the state budget revenue amounted to 12 billion somoni, and the figure has reached 23 billion somoni this year,” the president said, adding that the population’s income has doubled during the period.
President Rahmon also said that since Tajikistan’s independence, the poverty level in the country has lowered to 27.5 percent.
He said that the average life expectancy in Tajikistan has reached 75 years. The mortality rate has decreased by almost twofold, and the mortality rate among children below five years old has decreased more than threefold.
The president also said that Tajikistan’s population has reached almost 9.5 million, having increased by 70 percent during the years since independence.
Avesta earlier reported that the amount of money sent home by Tajik labor migrants from Russia in January-September of this year exceeded Tajikistan’s annual budget.
During the first nine months of this year, Tajik labor immigrants in Russia sent home US $2.49 billion, a 7-percent growth on-year.
It was earlier reported that remittances from labor migrants abroad account for more than 75 percent of all income of Tajikistan’s population.
