Chairman of the Committee on Statistics of the Ministry of National Economy Alikhan Smailov spoke at an April 15 media briefing about the main indicators of Kazakh socio-economic development. The growth of the short-term economic indicator in January-March amounted to 2 percent compared to the same period last year. The calculation of this index is based on the change in the index of manufacturing’smain sectors: agriculture, industry, construction, trade, transport and communications, which make up 67-68 percent of the country’s GDP. The volume of industrial production in January-March totalled 3.37 trillion tenge (US$18.2 billion) in current prices, which is 0.6 percent more than last year. In mining and quarrying production it increased by 1.1 percent. The production in agriculture grew by 3 percent to 254.3 billion tenge (US$1.4 billion). According to the transport industry volume index, the ratio of the actual level of production in January-March showed a 7 percent increase. In the first quarter of this year the volume of passenger traffic totalled 60.2 billion passenger-kilometres, which is 4 percent more than the same period last year. The communication and trade industries showed an increase in actual production levels of 7.3 percent and 3.1 percent, respectively. Thus, the volume of retail trade in January-March increased by 3.6 percent to 1.3 trillion tenge (US$7 billion) in cash. The volume of wholesale trade in the same period amounted to 3.143 trillion tenge (US$17 billion), an increase of 2.9 percent compared to the first quarter of 2014. The total number of registered legal entities as of April 1 amounted to 357,194 units, a growth of 4 percent, 348,259 of which have fewer than 100 employees. Smailov noted the positive trend of income growth. Per capita nominal income in February 2015 amounted to 62,388 tenge (US$337.26), which is 10.4 percent higher than in February last year, while real incomes for the period increased by 4.1 percent. The average monthly nominal wage per employee assessment in February this year amounted to 120,975 tenge (US$653.98). Unemployment statistics remained unchanged and amounted to 460,300 people, or 5 percent of the economically-active population.
The volume of investments in Kazakhstan increased by 2.9 percent from January-March compared to the same period last year, said chairman of the Kazakh Committee on Statistics Alikhan Smailov at an April 15 media briefing. “The volume of investment in fixed assets in January-March amounted to 969 billion tenge (US$5.2 billion), which is 2.9 percent more than in the first quarter of last year,” he said. According to Smailov, the growth of the short-term economic indicator in January-March was 102 percent; the GDP for the first quarter grew in real terms by 2.2 percent. At the same time, the volume of industrial production for the first quarter amounted to 3.372 trillion tenge (US$18.2 billion), including mining output growth which amounted to 1.1 percent and manufacturing, 0.5 percent. “The volume of gross output of agriculture amounted to 254 billion tenge (US$1.4 billion) with growth of 3 percent, transport services in real terms grew by 7 percent, in the communications sector the services volume grew by 7.3 percent, in trade, 3.1 percent,” he stressed. Smailov noted that the Kazakh foreign trade turnover for the current two months was $13.3 billion, of which exports amounted to $8.533 billion, imports $4.8 billion.
The Kazakh Ministry of National Economy reported April 14 that in January-February the trade turnover between Kazakhstan and the EAEU reached $2.262 billion. The department made it clear that in the structure of Kazakhstan’s exports, mineral products, metal products, chemical products, products of animal and vegetable origin and ready food products dominate the figure. Machinery and equipment, mineral products, metals and metal products, chemical products, products of animal and vegetable origin and ready food products are largely imported from the EAEU countries.
