BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 19. Kazakhstan's GDP growth in the first quarter of 2023 stood at 4.9 percent, Alikhan Smailov, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan said at a meeting on the socio-economic development of the country chaired by the Head of State, Trend reports, citing Kazakh President's press service.
"To date, the country's economy has adapted to unfavorable external conditions and has entered the path of stable growth. Despite complicated external situation, in 2022, the real growth of Kazakhstan's economy amounted to 3.2 percent," Smailov said.
According to the PM, in the reporting period of the current year, the country attracted $28 billion of foreign direct investment, which is an increase of 18 percent year-on-year. At the same time, the real volume of investments in the fixed assets increased by 8 percent.
Meanwhile, as the PM noted, the country's foreign trade turnover in the 1Q2023 increased by 32 percent and totaled $134 billion.
"The number of working small and medium-sized businesses increased by 27 percent to more than 1.8 million enterprises. The total number of people employed in this sector increased by 13 percent and reached 3.9 million people. As a result, the share of SMEs in the economy has already reached 36 percent (33.5 percent a year earlier)," Smailov added.