Kazakhstan’s foreign trade turnover showed almost a 13.5 percent increase to $32.5 billion over the first three months of this year, according to the statement announced at the government’s meeting. The country’s exports account for more than half of this amount. With the growth in local manufacturing, an eight percent increase up to $6 billion was also recorded in shipments of domestic processed goods, the Kazakh Ministry of National Economy notes. Besides that, the real and service sectors grew by five percent. Positive dynamics is observed in all major sectors of the country’s economy. As regards investments, their growth rate in fixed assets totaled 18 percent, and the current objective is to double this figure.
“It is necessary to attract more internal and external investments in order to boost business activity and ensure qualitative economic development. In this regard, we need to focus on the implementation of the pool of investment projects planned in manufacturing, agriculture, transport, logistics, IT sector, tourism and other areas. Our goal this year is to attract 18.5 trillion tenge of investment in fixed assets,” said Kazakh Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov.
This year, the Kazakh government aims to cut inflation twofold. After reaching the highest annual rate in February, it slowed down to 17 percent in April. The International Monetary Fund forecasts that Kazakhstan’s GDP growth will remain at 4.3 percent.
