Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan: strong, sustained growth, 1990–2024

A small, mountainous, landlocked economy, Kyrgyzstan depends heavily on gold mining (above all the Kumtor mine), remittances from workers in Russia, and re-export trade, and has been through political upheavals in 2005, 2010, and 2020. Between 1990 and 2024, Kyrgyzstan's GDP per capita grew from $606 to $2,420 (current US$), a compound annual growth rate of 4.2% — strong, sustained growth. Annual GDP growth averaged 2.6% with a year-to-year standard deviation of 7.2 points, reflecting considerable volatility and periodic crises. Structurally, agriculture's share of the economy moved from 31.1% to 8.6% of GDP (a classic decline as the economy industrialized/modernized), while services rose from 30.6% to 52.1% of GDP, underscoring a shift toward a services-driven economy. On human development, life expectancy rose from 61.3 to 72.4 years, while tertiary school enrollment moved from 27.1% to 53.9%, while the urban population share grew from 38.3% to 34.7%.

What this growth cost: Growth was not without cost: per-capita CO2 emissions fell from 6.35 to 1.49 tonnes CO2e per person; income inequality (Gini index) narrowed from 46.3 to 27.5; the poverty headcount ratio fell from 43.7% to 2.2%.