Kyrgyzstan ranks among five CIS countries which retained positive rates of economic development during six months of 2009, the Interstate Statistical Committee of the Commonwealth of Independent States says.

Among CIS members only Azerbaijan (3.6 percent GDP growth), Belarus (0.3 percent), Kyrgyzstan (0.3 percent), Tajikistan (2.8 percent) and Uzbekistan (8.2 percent growth) have managed to retain positive rates of economic development.

“The world crisis affected CIS countries owing to strong dependence of their economies on world demand and prices for exported raw materials, international credits and investments, decline in industrial production. Moreover, the crisis mostly affected Russian, Ukrainian and Kazakh economies. For the period, GDP rate of CIS member countries decreased by 9 percent on the average, comparing with the first six months of 2008,” RIA Novosti quoted the report of the Statistical Committee.

The highest GDP decline was traced in Ukraine, where the rate decreased by 20.3 percent, in Armenia (-16.3 percent) and Russia (-13.4 percent).