Baku, Azerbaijan, July 23
By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:
Following three months long period of GDP growth recovery, the dynamics of economy growth in Kazakhstan have stabilized by June 2019, Trend reports with reference to the report of the Eurasian Development Bank.
“According to the preliminary assessment of the Ministry of National Economy of Kazakhstan, this indicator has remained on the level of four percent following January-May 2019,” the report said.
The decrease of the industrial sector growth and some slowing down of consumer demand were compensated by activation of investments activities and growth increase in the agriculture, the report said.
“Business activity will stay on the current level, as evidenced by short-term expectations of economic agents in regards of demand and price fluctuations. In the following months the forecast global economy growth decrease and less favorable fluctuations on the oil market can somewhat will limit economic activity in Kazakhstan,” the report said.
“Furthermore, the decrease of industrial manufacturing in May 2019 is due to the decrease of oil and gas extraction by 11.3 percent as a result of Kashagan oil field overhaul. The decrease is also related to the coal extraction decrease by 5.4 percent. The decrease of processing industry manufacturing growth from 9.3 percent to 3.8 percent was also observed in the country,” the statement said.
“Taking into consideration that the overhaul of Kashagan oil field was finished in the second half of May, the recovery of the oil extraction volume can be expected in June-July. According to the plan of the oil fields’ overhaul, Tengiz and Karachaganak will be closed in 3Q2019 and 4Q2019, which could limit the growth of the industrial sector in 2H2019,” stated in the report.
“High investments activity remains in the country. Thus, investment into the fixed capital of the country increased by 7.8 percent in January-May compared to the same period of last year. The investments mainly account for mining industry, agriculture and construction,” the report said.
“In turn, the decrease of capital investments is observed in processing industry, trade, transport and real estate. We expect that investments will go on being among key drivers of the growth together with realization of existing state programs for development,” the bank concluded.
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