Kazakhstan's economy expanded 6.9 percent from a year earlier in the first four months of the year, Asel Torgautova, an official at the state statistics agency, said by phone from the capital, Astana.
The growth figure was first announced by Prime Minister Karim Massimov on his Twitter account, Bloomberg reported.
Kazakhstan increased its economic growth forecast to 7 percent this year and 6.9 percent in 2012 after gross domestic product expanded 7 percent in 2010, Economic Development and Trade Minister Kairat Kelimbetov said at a cabinet meeting today in Astana, according to e-mailed remarks. Growth will average 7 percent through 2015, he said.
The central bank in January estimated Kazakhstan's economy would expand as much as 6 percent this year. President Nursultan Nazarbayev has ordered that the economy must grow at least 7 percent annually through 2015, Kelimbetov said last month.