Kazakhstan Economy Profile 2008

Economy - overview

Kazakhstan, the largest of the former Soviet republics in territory, excluding Russia, possesses enormous fossil fuel reserves and plentiful supplies of other minerals and metals. It also has a large agricultural sector featuring livestock and grain. Kazakhstan's industrial sector rests on the extraction and processing of these natural resources. The breakup of the USSR in December 1991 and the collapse in demand for Kazakhstan's traditional heavy industry products resulted in a short-term contraction of the economy, with the steepest annual decline occurring in 1994. In 1995-97, the pace of the government program of economic reform and privatization quickened, resulting in a substantial shifting of assets into the private sector. Kazakhstan enjoyed double-digit growth in 2000-01 - 8% or more per year in 2002-07 - thanks largely to its booming energy sector, but also to economic reform, good harvests, and foreign investment. Inflation, however, jumped to more than 10% in 2007. In the energy sector, the opening of the Caspian Consortium pipeline in 2001, from western Kazakhstan's Tengiz oilfield to the Black Sea, substantially raised export capacity. In 2006 Kazakhstan completed the Atasu-Alashankou portion of an oil pipeline to China that is planned in future construction to extend from the country's Caspian coast eastward to the Chinese border. The country has embarked upon an industrial policy designed to diversify the economy away from overdependence on the oil sector by developing its manufacturing potential. The policy aims to reduce the influence of foreign investment and foreign personnel. The government has engaged in several disputes with foreign oil companies over the terms of production agreements; tensions continue. Upward pressure on the local currency continued in 2007 due to massive oil-related foreign-exchange inflows. Aided by strong growth and foreign exchange earnings, Kazakhstan aspires to become a regional financial center and has created a banking system comparable to those in Central Europe.

GDP (purchasing power parity)

$161.5 billion (2007)

GDP (official exchange rate)

$102.5 billion (2007)

GDP - real growth rate

8.7% (2007)

GDP - per capita (PPP)

$10,400 (2007)

GDP - composition by sector

agriculture: 5.8%
industry: 39.4%
services: 54.8% (2007)

Population below poverty line

13.8% (2007)

Household income or consumption by percentage share

lowest 10%: 3.3%
highest 10%: 26.5% (2004 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices)

10.8% (2007)

Investment (gross fixed)

25.4% of GDP (2007 est.)

Labor force

8.156 million (2007 est.)

Labor force - by occupation

agriculture: 32.2%
industry: 18%
services: 49.8% (2005)

Unemployment rate

7.3% (2007)

Distribution of family income - Gini index

30.4 (2005)

Budget

revenues: $21.49 billion
expenditures: $22.31 billion (2007 est.)

Public debt

7.7% of GDP (2007)

Industries

oil, coal, iron ore, manganese, chromite, lead, zinc, copper, titanium, bauxite, gold, silver, phosphates, sulfur, iron and steel; tractors and other agricultural machinery, electric motors, construction materials

Industrial production growth rate

4.5% (2007)

Electricity - production

76.34 billion kWh (2007)

Electricity - consumption

76.43 billion kWh (2007)

Electricity - exports

3.7 billion kWh (2007)

Electricity - imports

4 billion kWh (2007)

Oil - production

1.338 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption

234,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - imports

113,600 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - exports

1 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - proved reserves

9 billion bbl (1 January 2006 est.)

Natural gas - production

16.69 billion cu m (2007)

Natural gas - consumption

8.4 billion cu m (2007)

Natural gas - exports

10.2 billion cu m (2007)

Natural gas - imports

3.9 billion cu m (2007)

Natural gas - proved reserves

1.765 trillion cu m (1 January 2006 est.)

Current Account Balance

-$4.643 billion (2007 est.)

Agriculture - products

grain (mostly spring wheat), cotton; livestock

Exports

$44.88 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.)

Exports - commodities

oil and oil products 59%, ferrous metals 19%, chemicals 5%, machinery 3%, grain, wool, meat, coal (2001)

Exports - partners

Germany 12.4%, Russia 11.6%, China 10.9%, Italy 10.5%, France 7.6%, Romania 4.9% (2006)

Imports

$29.91 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.)

Imports - commodities

machinery and equipment, metal products, foodstuffs

Imports - partners

Russia 36.4%, China 19.3%, Germany 7.4% (2006)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold

$19.25 billion (31 December 2007 est.)

Debt - external

$93.9 billion (30 September 2007)

Stock of direct foreign investment - at home

$39.3 billion (September 2007)

Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad

$3.97 billion (September 2007)

Market value of publicly traded shares

$10.52 billion (2005)

Economic aid - recipient

$229.2 million (2005)

Currency (code)

tenge (KZT)

Exchange rates

tenge per US dollar - 122.55 (2007), 126.09 (2006), 132.88 (2005), 136.04 (2004), 149.58 (2003)

Fiscal year

calendar year