Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) - statistics & facts
The CIS members engage in political, economic, trade, and cultural cooperation and share a free trade area and a visa-free regime. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan are official members, while Georgia, Turkmenistan, and Ukraine are not, but they had previously participated in CIS activities, and Moldova has reduced participation in recent years. However, market data often includes non-official members due to geographical and economic proximity.
Economy of the CIS
The largest market in the CIS region is Russia, with its gross domestic product (GDP) estimated at almost 1.9 billion U.S. dollars in 2024. To compare, Ukraine's and Kazakhstan's economies are nearly four times smaller. In terms of GDP per capita at PPP, the leading economies are Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Belarus. The Russian economy is projected to shrink due to Western sanctions imposed over the war in Ukraine. Russia's economic decline may also negatively impact other CIS countries. For instance, Kyrgyzstan receives most of its remittances from Russia. At the same time, Armenia and Georgia could benefit from immigration from Russia, as the immigrants are often highly educated and bring capital to their economies.China is one of the major origins of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the CIS region. As of mid-2022, China's foreign direct investment (FDI) stock in the CIS exceeded 67 billion U.S. dollars. Furthermore, the mutual FDI stock of the CIS countries stood at 48.8 billion U.S. dollars in the first half of 2023, with Russia being the main investment source. Regarding foreign trade, China and Russia are the leading trade partners of most countries in the region. For instance, Uzbekistan exported the highest value of goods to China, at over 3.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2022.
Digitalization in the CIS
The CIS countries generally have high mobile subscription rates. There were over 148 mobile cellular subscriptions per 100 inhabitants in the CIS, compared to 109 in the Americas. The mobile broadband internet subscription rate was lower, though still above the global average, at 87 subscriptions per 100 residents. The development of the 5G infrastructure is still ongoing, and in 2030, four out of ten mobile connections were forecast to be 5G.The CIS region comprises countries with a competitive advantage in various industries, which facilitates intra-organizational trade. For Russia and Belarus, trade and cooperation with the CIS partners has become even more significant in view of the Western sanctions.