As per the forecasts, Kazakhstan experienced a 4.3 percent gross domestic product (GDP) increase during 2014, according to the Chairman of the Statistics Committee of the Ministry of National Economy Alikhan Smailov.
A short-termeconomic indicatoramounted to 102.8 percent from January–December 2014. The fixedasset formation was 574.7 billiontenge (US$3.1 billion), which means that the investment volume increased by 3.9 percent.
The country’s foreign trade turnover, however, was $110.6 billion, a decline of 9.9 percent in comparison to the previous year. The volume of Kazakhstan’s export and import decreased by 6.7 percent and 13.6 percent, reaching $73.3 billion and $37.3 billion, respectively.
Smailov noted the positive growth in the manufacturing and agricultural sectors during the past year. He said that the industrial production grew by 0.2 percent and amounted to 18.493 trillion tenge (US$100.6 billion); as for the mining industry, a slight decrease of 0.3 percent was seen during 2014. A small increase of 1 percent was noted in the processing industry. The gross agricultural output was 2.5 trillion tenge (US$13.6 billion).
Moreover, according to the preliminary estimates of the statistics committee, the nominal per capita income of the population amounted to 62,355 tenge (US$339.25) in November 2014, showing an increase of 9.1 percent compared to the same period in 2013. The real cash income increased by 1.4 percent.
Almaty, Astana and the Atyrau regions topped the list of the greatest income volume per capita in November 2014, exceeding the national average performance by 1.8-2.1 times. The South Kazakhstan, Zhambyl and Almaty regions were named as the areas of the lowest income providers, as the average income of the population was 20-39 percent below the national average.
However, the highest rates of real income growth were noticed in the Mangistau region and in the capital city of Astana. The balance between the maximum and minimum nominal income volumes by region in November 2014 was 3.4 percent and was reduced in comparison to November 2013, when this index was 3.5 percent.
