NUR-SULTAN – Kazakhstan’s export volume decreased 4.5 percent during first 10 months of 2019 and exports fell from 65.1 percent of all trade volume to 60.4 percent, energyprom.kz reported Dec. 30, using data from the Kazakh Ministry of National Economy’s Statistics Committee.
Kaspi tube consortium. Photo credit: kioge.negusexpo.ru.
Exports decreased from $50 billion in 2018 to $47.7 billion in 2019.
At the same time, trade turnover increased 3 percent compared with the same period in 2018, amounting to $79.1 billion. Import increased 17 percent in 2019, from $26.8 billion to 31.4 million. The share of import in total trade increased from 34.9 percent to 39.6 percent in 2019.
Mineral products made up the largest share of exports in 2019 at 73 percent of total exports, or $34.8 billion. Of this, $32 billion came from fuel and energy products. Metals and metal products amounted to $6.5 billion or 13.7 percent of the total exports; animal and vegetable products and finished food products made up $2.6 billion, or 5.4 percent.
Major export product groups also included chemical products and related industries ($2.2 billion) and machinery, equipment, vehicles, appliances and apparatus ($930.1 million).
Seventy-four percent, or $45.4 billion, of Kazakhstan’s total exports were commodities. Accordingly, 25.8 percent, or $15.8 billion, were non-oil exports. According to the National Export Strategy, Kazakhstan set an export target for non-primary goods and services in 2018 of $22.7 billion, and for 2019, $24.7 billion.
Measures to boost Kazakhstan’s exports include changes to legislation governing the redistribution of repayable funds for the provision of soft loans and financing for non-primary sector export-oriented projects. Authorized capital has been increased and a state guarantee mechanism has been introduced for Kazakh Export. Measures to reimburse transport costs for industrial and innovative enterprises were also introduced. The goal of the changes is to increase the volume of non-oil exports by one and a half times by 2022, and to double it by 2025.
