page_title: South Ossetia
section_title: Economy
hierarchical_section_title: South Ossetia / Economy
caption_attribution_description: English: Gas pipeline Dzuarikau-Tskhinval Русский: Газопровод Дзуарикау—Цхинвал
context_page_description: South Ossetia, officially the Republic of South Ossetia – the State of Alania, or the Tskhinvali Region, is a de facto state in the South Caucasus recognised by most countries as part of Georgia. It has a population of 53,000 people who live in an area of 3,900 km², south of the Russian Caucasus, with 30,000 living in Tskhinvali. The separatist polity, Republic of South Ossetia, is recognized as a state by Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Nauru, and Syria. While Georgia lacks control over South Ossetia, the Georgian government and most members of the United Nations consider the territory part of Georgia, whose constitution designates the area as "the former autonomous district of South Ossetia", in reference to the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast disbanded in 1990.
  Georgia does not recognize the existence of South Ossetia as a political entity, and therefore its territory does not correspond to any Georgian administrative area, with most of the territory included into Shida Kartli region. The area is often informally referred to as the legally undefined Tskhinvali Region in both Georgia and international organisations when neutrality is deemed necessary.
context_section_description: South Ossetia's economy is primarily agricultural, although less than 10% of South Ossetia's land area is cultivated. Cereals, fruit and vines are the major produce. Forestry and cattle industries are also maintained. A number of industrial facilities also exist, particularly around the capital, Tskhinvali. Following the war in the 1990s, South Ossetia struggled economically. South Ossetian GDP was estimated at US$15 million (US$250 per capita) in a work published in 2002. Employment and supplies are scarce. Additionally, Georgia cut off supplies of electricity to the region, which forced the South Ossetian government to run an electric cable through North Ossetia. The majority of the population survives on subsistence farming. Virtually the only significant economic asset that South Ossetia possesses is control of the Roki Tunnel that is used to link Russia and Georgia, from which the South Ossetian government reportedly obtained as much as a third of its budget by levying customs duties on freight traffic before the war.
  President Eduard Kokoity has admitted that his country is seriously dependent on Russian economic assistance.
  South Ossetia's poverty threshold stood at 3,062 rubles a month in the fourth quarter of 2007, or 23.5 percent below Russia's average, while South Ossetians have incomparably smaller incomes.
  Before the 2008 South Ossetia war, South Ossetia's industry consisted of 22 small factories, with a total production of 61.6 million rubles in 2006. In 2007, only 7 factories were functioning. In March 2009, it was reported that most of the production facilities were standing idle and were in need of repairs. Even successful factories have a shortage of workers, are in debt and have a shortage of working capital. One of the largest local enterprises is the Emalprovod factory, which has 130 employees.
  The South Ossetian authorities are planning to improve finances by boosting the local production of flour and thus reducing the need for flour imports. For this purpose, the area planted with wheat was increased tenfold in 2008 from 130 hectares to 1,500 hectares. The wheat harvest in 2008 was expected to be 2,500 tons of grain. The South Ossetian Agriculture ministry also imported some tractors in 2008, and was expecting delivery of more farm machinery in 2009.
  Russia planned to spend 10 billion rubles in the restoration of South Ossetia in 2008.
  The economy is currently very dependent on funding from Russia.
  In 2017, the Administration of South Ossetia estimated its GDP to be nearly 0.1 billion US dollars.
caption: The Dzuarikau–Tskhinvali pipeline, delivering natural gas from Russia to South Ossetia, went online in 2009.
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