Azernews.Az

By Kamila Aliyeva

Kazakhstan registered an increase in the volume of industrial production in the country.

The volume of industrial production in Kazakhstan hit 6.5 trillion tenge for January-September 2017, showing an increase of 5.7 percent compared to the same period last year.

This was stated by Kazakh Minister for Investment and Development Zhenis Kasymbek at a government meeting on October 31.

He noted that the growth was observed in pharmaceuticals (36.1 percent), light industry (9.6 percent), metallurgy (7 percent), machine building (6 percent), refining (5.8 percent), food production (5. 3 percent) and the chemical industry (4.2 percent).

"Exports of the manufacturing industry increased by 23.1 percent compared to the same period of 2017 and amounted to $9.9 billion in the first eight months of this year. The volume of investments in the manufacturing sector for the 9 months of this year increased by 3.5 percent compared to the same period in 2016 and amounted to 599 billion tenge," Kasymbek said.

Currently, Kazakhstan's manufacturing products are exported to 110 countries and new markets are being opened.

As a result of the implementation of the Industrialization Program, the contribution of the manufacturing sector to the development of the economy (GDP) increased from 10.1 percent in 2015 to 11.9 percent in the first half of 2017, in industry from 31.8 percent in 2010 to 40.7 percent for the 9 months of 2017, in exports - from 27.9 percent in 2010 to 32.7 percent for 8 months in 2017.

The volume of industrial production in Kazakhstan in 2016 decreased by 1.1 percent compared to 2015.

Previously, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said that the state program on industrialization has not yet ensured the diversification of the country's economy and there is still a lot of work to be done in this area.

The economic growth in Kazakhstan is expected to accelerate to 2.2 percent in 2017 and to 4.7 percent for the nine months of 2018.

Economic growth in this period will be provided due to the growth in domestic consumption amid rising real wages, the growth of investment in fixed assets in the framework of the implementation of government programs to support and diversify the economy, and the growth of production of mineral resources (the Kashagan effect).

The official exchange rate for October 26 is 334 KZT / USD.

---

Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz