That calculated dollar amount results from a 351.3% acceleration from 5 years earlier in 2019 when Turkmenistan’s exports totaled $3.2 billion.
Year over year, the value of products exported from Turkmenistan flatlined via a 0.8% gain compared to $14.3 billion during 2022.
Turkmenistan’s 3 biggest exported products by sales in 2023 are petroleum gases, refined petroleum oils and nitrogenous fertilizers. Collectively, that trio of leading exports represents 93.5% of the overall revenues from the country’s total shipments during 2023. Such a high percentage indicates an intensely concentrated array of exported goods.
Turkmenistan’s Major Trading Partners
The latest available country-specific data shows that 97.5% of products exported from Turkmenistan was bought by importers in: mainland China (67% of the Turkmen total), Türkiye (11.6%), Greece (7.2%), Azerbaijan (4.8%), Ukraine (1.6%), India (1.5%), Kazakhstan (1.2%), Georgia (0.62%), Italy (0.6%), Singapore (0.56%), Romania (0.51%) and Spain (0.4%).
From a continental perspective, 87.6% of Turkmenistan’s exports by value was delivered to fellow Asian countries while 11.1% was sold to importers in Europe.
Smaller percentages went to buyers in Latin America (0.5%) excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean, Africa (0.4%), North America (0.3%), then Australia and New Zealand in Oceania (0.0001%).
Given Turkmenistan’s population of 6.52 million people, its total $14.4 billion in 2023 exports translates to roughly $2,200 for every resident in the Central Asian nation. That dollar metric lags the average $2,300 per capita one year earlier in 2022.
Turkmenistan’s Top 10 Exports
The following export product groups represent the highest dollar value in Turkmen global shipments during 2023. Also shown is the percentage share each export category represents in terms of overall exports from Turkmenistan.
- Mineral fuels including oil: US$13.3 billion (92.5% of total exports)
- Fertilizers: $699 million (4.9%)
- Cotton: $136.3 million (0.9%)
- Inorganic chemicals: $56 million (0.4%)
- Vegetables: $43.9 million (0.3%)
- Soaps, washing preparations, lubricants, waxes: $17.6 million (0.1%)
- Gums, resins, other vegetable saps: $15.9 million (0.1%)
- Miscellaneous textiles, worn clothing: $13.6 million (0.1%)
- Plastics, plastic articles: $11.7 million (0.1%)
- Raw hides, skins not furskins, leather: $9.2 million (0.1%)
Turkmenistan’s top 10 export product categories generated 99.5% of the overall value of its global shipments.
Soaps, washing preparations, lubricants and waxes was the fastest grower among the Turkmenistan top 10 export categories, up by 255.7% from 2022 to 2023.
In second place for improving export sales was inorganic chemicals via a 28.7% advance.
Turkmenistan’s shipments of raw hides, skins excluding furskins, and leather posted the third-fastest gain in value up by 6.7%.
The leading decliner among Turkmenistan’s top 10 export categories was plastics, encompassing both materials and items made from plastic articles, recording a -90% year-over-year drop.
From the more granular four-digit Harmonized Tariff System code level, petroleum gases represent Turkmenistan’s most valuable exported product representing 71.2% of the country’s total. In second place were refined petroleum oils (18.9%) trailed by nitrogenous fertilizers (3.4%), crude oil (2.3%), potassic fertilizers (1.4%), cotton-heavy yarn (0.6%), fluorine, chlorine, bromine and iodine (0.4%), fresh or chilled tomatoes (0.3%), woven cotton fabrics (0.1%), then miscellaneous organic cleaning preparations (also 0.1%).
Products Driving Turkmenistan’s Best Trade Surpluses
Overall Turkmenistan achieved a US$10.8 billion trade surplus for 2023, expanding by 17.4% from $9.2 billion in black ink one year earlier in 2022.
The following types of Turkmenistan product shipments represent positive net exports or a trade balance surplus. Investopedia defines net exports as the value of a country’s total exports minus the value of its total imports.
In a nutshell, net exports represent the amount by which foreign spending on a home country’s goods or services exceeds or lags the home country’s spending on foreign goods or services.
- Mineral fuels including oil: US$13.2 billion (Up by 4.3% since 2022)
- Fertilizers: $692.3 million (Up by 10.6%)
- Cotton: $105.7 million (Down by -61.1%)
- Vegetables: $40.8 million (Up by 6.7%)
- Inorganic chemicals: $28.1 million (Up by 178.5%)
- Gums, resins, other vegetable saps: $15.5 million (Down by -31.8%)
- Raw hides, skins not furskins, leather: $9.2 million (Up by 6.4%)
- Miscellaneous textiles, worn clothing: $5.3 million (Down by -54.1%)
- Copper: $2.9 million (Down by -93.6%)
- Silk: $848,000 (Up by 3%)
Turkmenistan has highly positive net exports in the international trade of petroleum gases, refined petroleum oils and crude oil. In turn, these cashflows indicate Turkmenistan’s strong competitive advantages under the category mineral fuels including oil.
Products Causing Turkmenistan’s Worst Trade Deficits
Below are exports from Turkmenistan that result in negative net exports or product trade balance deficits. These negative net exports reveal product categories where foreign spending on home country Turkmenistan’s goods trail Turkmenistan importer spending on foreign products.
- Machinery including computers: -US$672.5 million (Down by -13.2% since 2022)
- Electrical machinery, equipment: -$453.2 million (Down by -61.5%)
- Vehicles: -$323.7 million (Down by -19.6%)
- Articles of iron or steel: -$291.8 million (Up by 3.5%)
- Cereals: -$178 million (Up by 35.8%)
- Other chemical goods: -$122.9 million (Up by 49.4%)
- Pharmaceuticals: -$99.6 million (Down by -26.3%)
- Optical, technical, medical apparatus: -$98.3 million (Down by -21.7%)
- Plastics, plastic articles: -$90.9 million (Up by 53.5%)
- Furniture, bedding, lighting, signs, prefabricated buildings: -$87.2 million (Down by -6.8%)
Turkmenistan has highly negative net exports and therefore deep international trade deficits under the product category titled machinery including computers.
Turkmenistan Export Companies
No Turkmenistan corporations rank among Forbes Global 2000.
Wikipedia lists exports-related companies from Turkmenistan. Selected examples are shown below.
- Turkmenistan Airlines (airliner)
- Türkmengaz (natural gas)
- Türkmennebit (oil, gas)
In macroeconomic terms, Turkmenistan’s total exported goods represent 8.5% of its overall Gross Domestic Product for 2023 ($169.3 billion valued in Purchasing Power Parity US dollars). That 8.5% for exports to overall GDP in PPP for 2023 compares to 12% for 2022. Those percentages suggest a relatively decreasing reliance on products sold on international markets for Turkmenistan’s total economic performance, albeit based on estimates over a short timeframe.
Another key indicator of economic health is a country’s jobless rate. Turkmenistan averaged a 4.12% unemployment rate for 2023, same as the average jobless rate in 2022.
Turkmenistan’s capital city is Ashgabat, nicknamed the “City of White Marble”.
See also OPEC Crude Oil Exports Sales Data, Petroleum Gas Exports by Country and Crude Oil Exports by Country
Research Sources:
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook Central Asia: Turkmenistan. Accessed on November 26, 2024
Forbes Global 2000 rankings, The World’s Biggest Public Companies. Accessed on November 26, 2024
International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database (GDP based on Purchasing Power Parity). Accessed on November 26, 2024
International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on November 26, 2024
Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on November 26, 2024
Wikipedia, Gross domestic product. Accessed on November 26, 2024
Wikipedia, List of Companies of Turkmenistan. Accessed on November 26, 2024
Wikipedia, Purchasing power parity. Accessed on November 26, 2024
Wikipedia, Turkmenistan. Accessed on November 26, 2024