The Tajik government in its Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper for 2010-12 set an ambitious target of doubling Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in a decade. Tajikistan clearly has the potential to grow at more than seven percent a year as it has done in the recent past, but it is not going to be easy. The potential for 'catch-up' growth from the depths of the recession of the 1990s is largely exhausted, the external environment is now less favorable than it was in the 2000s, and some drivers of past growth are unlikely to be sustained. Nevertheless, efforts by the government to create better conditions for higher private investment, exports, and employment, as well as strong support from the Tajik business community and development partners, could make this target a reality. In the 2000s, the Tajik economy recovered from the severe transition-related recession and civil conflict of the 1990s. Macroeconomic performance improved: inflation fell from 30-40 percent in the late 1990s to six-seven percent in the mid-2000s, fiscal deficits were lower, and the current account deficit and external debt moved to more manageable levels. Real GDP growth averaged nearly eight percent a year in 2000-08. The poverty headcount fell sharply, from 72 percent in 2003 to 54 percent in 2007, with more than a million people moving out of poverty
during the same period, the share of the extremely poor population fell from 42 percent to 17 percent. Key social indicators (for example, primary and secondary school enrollment rates, infant mortality, maternal mortality, and child malnutrition) also improved.