GDP growth in Kazakhstan for the first two months was 4%, said Minister of National Economy Timur Suleimenov at a meeting of the RK Government, Kazpravda.kz reports.
"GDP growth for the reporting period amounted to 4.0 percent compared to 2.5 percent in the same period in 2017. This growth was due to the manufacturing and services, as well as the investment and domestic consumption," the minister said.
At the same time, according to Timur Suleimenov, inflation in Kazakhstan has slowed and since the beginning of the year amounted to 1.3%. This is the lowest value for the recent years. In annual terms, inflation was 6.5% (Feb to Feb).
According to the minister, in general, the volume of industrial production grew by 5.6%. In the structure of the industries, the growth of the manufacturing industry exceeded the growth in the extractive sector (6.1% and 5.5%, respectively). At the same time, there was a 4.5% drop in construction sector volumes.
The rise in the services sector by 4.1% (compared to 1.5% in the same period last year) is due to the growth in trade indicators by 7.0%.
"Investments in fixed assets increased by 54.4%, which is related to modernization and reconstruction of the Shymkent oil refinery," Timur Suleimenov said.
In addition, in the first two months of 2018, the country's international reserves grew by 2.0% (up to 90.8 billion US dollars). Gold and exchange currency reserves grew by 2.2% (up to 31.4 billion dollars). The assets of the National Fund increased by 1.8% (up to 59.4 billion dollars).
Reported by Anastasia Prilepskaya for the Kazakhstanskaya Pravda.
