BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 24
By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:
The temporary shutdown of most businesses and restrictions on the movement of people in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic have led to a decrease in the volume of freight and passenger traffic in Kazakhstan, Trend reports citing the report of Kazakhstan’s National Bank.
Transport was the industry with the most significant decline in 2020. The peak of the decline in transport services in Kazakhstan was in April (decrease by 36.6 percent compared to the same month last year) and May (by 25 percent) of 2020.
Along with trade, transport made a major contribution to the decline of GDP. The volume of services in the transport and warehousing industry decreased by 17.3 percent in annual terms from January through October 2020.
With a 2.9 percent decrease in GDP for 10 months of this year, the negative contribution of the transport industry to the fall was 1.3 percentage points. The last time similar dynamics was observed in 2009.
Regionally, the main contribution to the reduction in transport services was made by transport sector of Almaty region (by 22.7 percent year-on-year), Kyzylorda region (by 21.5 percent), Karaganda region (by 24.5 percent), West Kazakhstan region (by 25.9 percent).
Freight transportation by all modes of transport decreased by 7.1 percent from Jan. through Oct. for the first time since 2016.
The least amount of cargo was transported by air - a decrease by 18.5 percent (share in the total traffic volume was 0.4 percent), as well as by other land transport by 7.9 percent (8.1 percent). Against the backdrop of a decrease in business activity in trading partner countries caused by the spread of COVID-19, the demand for energy resources in Kazakhstan decreased, which affected the decline in oil and gas condensate exports.
This also led to a decrease in pipeline transport volumes, which decreased by 8.4 percent (the share in the total traffic volume was 51.4 percent).
At the same time, the decline in pipeline transport performance was facilitated by the reduction in oil production under the terms of the OPEC+ agreement. In the regional terms, a decrease in the volume of cargo transportation was observed almost throughout the Kazakhstan, with the exception of the West Kazakhstan region, Almaty and Shymkent cities.
As a result of restrictions on movement, as well as the closure of borders and the transition of people to remote work, the volume of passenger traffic decreased by 60.4 percent year-on-year.
The reduction was observed in all modes of transport and in all regions of Kazakhstan. Railway passenger traffic decreased by 52 percent (share in the total passenger traffic was 13.5 percent), road transport by 61.5 percent (share was 70.5 percent), air by 52.1 percent (share was 15.5 percent).
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