BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 12. Turkmenistan's foreign trade turnover increased by 9.5% in January-October 2026, accelerating by 0.3 percentage points compared with the same period of 2025, Trend reports based on its calculations using official figures presented by the press service of the Turkmen government.
The country's economic performance for the first ten months of the year was reviewed at a Cabinet of Ministers meeting chaired by President Serdar Berdimuhamedov. Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers Hojamyrat Geldimyradov presented the relevant figures.
According to the reported data, production output increased by 10% compared with January-October 2025, while retail trade turnover grew by 10.6%.
Trend's calculations show that production growth slowed by 0.1 percentage points compared with the first ten months of 2025. The slowdown was more pronounced compared with the 2024 growth rate of 11.8%, amounting to 1.8 percentage points.
Retail trade turnover also continued to lose momentum. Its growth rate declined by 2.4 percentage points compared with January-October 2025, when it reached 13%, and by 1.9 percentage points compared with the same period of 2024.
In contrast, foreign trade turnover showed an improvement. Its growth rate rose from 9.2% in January-October 2025 to 9.5% in the same period of 2026, an increase of 0.3 percentage points.
Notably, Turkmenistan's key trading partners include China, Türkiye, Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Iran. The country exports primarily natural gas, petroleum products, textiles, cotton and fertilizers, while imports consist mainly of machinery, industrial equipment, vehicles, metals and chemical products. China remains the dominant destination for Turkmen gas exports, accounting for the majority of the country's hydrocarbon shipments.
Domestic retail trade is driven by a combination of state-owned and private businesses, with consumer spending concentrated on food products, household goods, clothing, electronics and construction materials. In recent years, Turkmenistan has expanded retail and logistics infrastructure while increasing private-sector participation in trade, supporting growth in retail turnover and consumer activity.