Turkmenstat and the World Bank Have Launched a Project to Modernize the National Macroeconomic Accounting System
The State Statistics Committee of Turkmenistan has signed a Reimbursable Consulting Agreement with the World Bank Group, represented by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The signing of this document for 2026–2027 follows a series of expert consultations held in Ashgabat this year with delegations led by the World Bank Regional Director for Central Asia.
The bilateral project aims to comprehensively improve the national statistical system, implement innovative digital data collection platforms, and accurately integrate national macroeconomic indicators into the global coordinate system.
The main focus of technical assistance under the agreement will be Turkmenistan's transition to the latest international statistical standard, the 2025 System of National Accounts (SNA), approved in March 2025 at the 56th session of the UN Statistical Commission in New York. Joint work will significantly strengthen national capacity in maintaining the system of national accounts and calculating gross domestic product (GDP).
The invited international experts will assist in developing specialized operational guidelines, creating verified sample lists of goods and services for price sector monitoring, and will train Turkmenstat specialists in advanced methodologies for calculating purchasing power parity (PPP).
An important part of the agency's digital modernization will be the complete abandonment of traditional paper-based records in favor of computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) for household and labor market surveys. To this end, the modern software platform "SurveySolutions" is being introduced into the statistical agencies' practices. The project includes organizing large-scale training courses for relevant specialists and conducting a pilot survey based on electronic questionnaires.
Successful implementation of the agreement will significantly improve the reliability, transparency, and timeliness of national statistics, providing the global economic community with highly accurate and comparable macroeconomic data on Turkmenistan's development.
