ASTANA (TCA) — Kazakhstan’s GDP grew 0.8 percent in the first 11 months of 2016, Prime Minister Bakhytzhan Sagintayev said at the Government meeting on December 20 that reviewed the results of the country’s socio-economic development for 11 months of this year, the official website of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan reported.
“Currently, we are using all the reserves. We can finish the year with 1-percent growth, so we must take every effort in this direction,” Sagintayev said.
Minister of National Economy Kuandyk Bishimbayev reported that one of the main conditions of maintaining positive economic growth is the increase in investment activity. The volume of investments grew 4.7 percent — up to 6 trillion tenge — in the 11 months of this year.
He also pointed out the positive dynamics of foreign direct investments since the beginning of the year. Thus, the net inflow of foreign direct investments amounted to $12.1 billion in January-September, 4.4-fold increase on-year.
Minister Bishimbayev said that acceleration of growth up to 0.8 percent was observed in January-November this year, 0.2 percent more than in January-October last year. The increase in production of goods amounted to 0.9 percent, services – 0.6 percent, and taxes on products – 2.4 percent.
Construction, agriculture, transportation and manufacturing are the main drivers of economic growth in Kazakhstan, the minister said.
Bishimbayev said that industrial production growth was achieved in 11 regions of the country in the first 11 months of this year, compared to growth in 8 regions in the same period last year. The highest growth was registered in the East Kazakhstan region (4.9 percent), Karaganda region (4.8 percent), and Akmola region (4.2 percent).
In addition, growth of agricultural output amounted to 4.5 percent in the country due to crop production increase by 5.9 percent. The production of animal products grew 2.6 percent.
