Kazakh foreign trade up, EEU conditions to ease

    The Eurasian Economic Union intergovernmental meeting has revealed 185 barriers and restrictions in mutual trade and were able to agree on 60 of them, said Deputy Economy of Kyrgyzstan Almaz Sazbakov on March 14.
    “Development of the Union is equally important for us as taking off the trade obstacles. We indeed have many barriers and the intergovernmental meeting came up with the report that includes all these 185 barriers. The member states could agree on 60 of them. The parties adopted a joint plan of actions to eliminate those barriers,” Tazabek quoted Sazbakov as saying.
    He also added that the EAEU members are actively working on development of digital space until 2025.
    Foreign trade turnover of Kazakhstan in January 2017 amounted to $5,263.6 billion and compared to January 2016 increased by 21.1%, the Economy Ministry said.
    Exports amounted to $3,276.4 billion (18.9% up) and import - $1,987.2 billion (25% up).
    As of March 1, 2017, the number of registered legal entities was 389,043 (6.8% up), including 380,101 employers with the number of employees less than 100 people.
    The number of acting legal entities was 244,874, of which the number of small enterprises was 236,432.
    The consumer price index in February 2017 compared with December 2016 amounted to 101.8%.
    Prices for food products increased by 2.6%, non-food - by 1.3%, paid services for the population - by 1.2%.
    Prices of manufacturing companies for industrial products in February 2017 compared with December 2016 increased by 6.7%.
    Industrial output in the first two months totaled 3,514.5 trillion tenge or 4.5% higher than in January-February 2016. Short-term economic indicator of Kazakhstan reached 103.7% in January-February 2017, said the Ministry of Economy of Kazakhstan.
    Investments in fixed assets amounted to 699.7 billion tenge in January-February 2017 or 11.2% higher than in January-February 2016.
    Mining production increased by 3.4%, manufacturing - by 6.3%, electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply - by 2.5%.
    Water supply, sewerage system, collection of waste declined by 2.6%.
    The volume of gross output of agricultural products (services) amounted to 212.3 billion tenge in January-February 2017, which is 1.6% more than in January-February 2016.
    The growth in transport sector was 103.2%, the volume of cargo turnover amounted to 80.9 billion tenge (including an estimate of the volume of freight turnover of individual entrepreneurs involved in commercial transport) in January-February of 2017 and increased by 3% compared to January-February 2016. The volume of passenger turnover was 41.8 billion tenge and grew by 3.2%.
    The growth in trade was 102% n January-February 2017. The volume of retail trade amounted to 1125.2 billion tenge for January-February 2017 or 104.5% to the level of the corresponding period of 2016 (in comparable prices). The volume of wholesale trade for January-February 2017 amounted to 2,273.5 billion tenge or 100.6% against the level of the corresponding period of 2016 (in comparable prices).
    The average nominal income per capita in Kazakhstan amounted to 72,999 tenge ($229.65) in January 2017, which is 4.1% higher than in January 2016, real money incomes for this period decreased by 3.5%, the Ministry of National Economy of Kazakhstan said.
    The average monthly nominal wage in February 2017 was 137,331 tenge.
    The number of unemployed people in February 2017 was 432,100.
    The unemployment rate was 4.9%.
    The number of people registered as unemployed in the employment services as of February 2017 was 67,200 or 0.7% of the workforce.
    Reported by AKIpress.