Kyrgyzstan is a land-locked, lower-middle-income country that is located in the Central Asian region, bordering with Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south and China to the east. According to World Bank data, in 2021 the population of the country was 6.7 million people, with a GDP of 8.5 billion USD (GDP per capita 1,275.9 USD) and an average life expectancy of 71.6 years.
Kyrgyzstan is the second poorest country in Central Asia after Tajikistan and about a quarter of the population lives below the poverty line. Over half of the country is made up of agricultural land, consisting mainly of pasture. Kyrgyzstan is an import-dependent country, where most needed food items mainly come from outside the country, including significant wheat, vegetable oil, and sugar imports from the Russian Federation. In Kyrgyzstan, the cost of some products has risen by up to 50%, and in the first four months of 2022, inflation was 7.1%. Between 2016 and 2019, poor families spent more than 60% of their income on food, leaving little room for other outgoings and hindering their ability to move out of poverty.
The closure of state borders due to the crisis in Ukraine and sanctions on Russia has hit the region hard. As well as the impact of key food prices, the Russia-Ukraine conflict has also led to a steep decline in remittances into Central Asia, causing extreme poverty among families of migrants and their communities. Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, two of the most migrant-dependent countries in the world, are the most severely affected.
Source: Relief Web
