Ethnic strife hits economy

Kyrgyzstan's economic growth could shrink by up to 5 per cent from a wave of ethnic violence this month and will suffer more unless the Government finds ways of reconciling its two main ethnic groups, a United Nations economist said.

Clashes between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz have wrecked the south of the ex-Soviet republic and made 400,000 people homeless as they fled the violence in the impoverished nation of 5.3 million.

"We are going to see problems with agriculture, we are going to see problems with trade," Ben Slay, a senior economist at the UN Development Programme, said.