BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov. 24
By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:
Economic contraction in Kazakhstan slowed down even as gains in the GDP deflator accelerated, IHS Markit Economist Venla Sipilä said, Trend reports citing IHS Markit.
According to preliminary, quarterly national accounts data from the State Statistics Committee, Kazakhstan's GDP in January-September 2020 contracted by 2.8 percent year on year (y/y) in real terms. This implies contraction of 4.4 percent y/y in the third quarter, following a slide of 5.7 percent y/y in the second quarter.
“Economic contraction slowed down even as gains in the GDP deflator accelerated. The deflator increased by 4.1 percent over period from January through September, following an increase of 1.2 percent y/y in the first half of the year,” the report said.
Sipilä said growth in the industrial sector dwindled to just 0.2 percent y/y in the first nine months of the year. Coming after growth of 3.2 percent y/y in the first half of 2020, this implies expected y/y contraction in the third quarter.
With expansion nearly halting, the GDP-share of the industrial sector eased further, although it remained above 29 percent. Even with some deceleration in growth, the construction sector retained its position as the sector expanding by far the fastest, its January-September growth rate lifting its GDP-contribution further, to 6.2 percent.
Growth in the agriculture sector accelerated to 5 percent y/y from 2.4 percent y/y in the first half, lifting the sector's GDP-share to over 5 percent. The success was partly driven by rising crop output.
The contraction of 6.1 percent y/y in the service sector as a whole signals deteriorating performance in the third quarter. Consequently, their share of GDP in January-September fell to 53.3 percent, from nearly 56 percent in the first half.
“Kazakhstan’s third-quarter economic performance benefited from the recovery of oil prices; the average price of Brent crude oil in the third quarter averaged $42.82 per barrel (pb), compared to $29.58 pb in the second quarter,” Sipilä said.
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