Kyrgyzstan GDP up 10% in Jan-Sept year-on-year as Ukraine war reroutes supply chains

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BISHKEK (Reuters) -Kyrgyzstan’s economy grew by 10% year-on-year in the first nine months of 2025, with gross domestic product (GDP) reaching around $13.7 billion, the state statistics committee said on Wednesday.

According to official data, growth was driven by construction, industry, trade and mining. The construction sector expanded by almost 30%, while wholesale and retail trade rose by 11%. Public debt rose to $8.4 billion as of July 31, up $1.9 billion from a year earlier. 

Mountainous, mostly Muslim Kyrgyzstan was traditionally dependent on migrants working in Russia, but has experienced rapid economic growth since the war in Ukraine and Western sanctions on Russia rerouted supply chains via third countries.

Azamat Akeneev, chief economic expert at the National Institute for Strategic Studies, said that Kyrgyzstan, which is in a customs union with Russia, was outperforming its neighbours thanks to its role in circumventing Western sanctions on Moscow.

He said: “Because of sanctions, the country has become a kind of offshore hub for Russian companies using Kyrgyzstan’s financial system to settle their issues.”

The U.S. and UK have sanctioned several Kyrgyz banks they accuse of facilitating Russian sanctions-busting.

Kyrgyzstan is holding snap parliamentary elections on November 30, which analysts say are aimed at bolstering the authority of President Sadyr Japarov, a populist and nationalist who has clamped down on opposition in what was previously Central Asia’s most democratic country.

(Reporting by Aigerim Turgunbaeva, Writing by Felix Light; Editing by Sharon Singleton)