Kazakhstan ups crediting of agriculture
By Nigar Abbasova
Banks of Kazakhstan have increased the portfolio of loans issued for enterprises engaged in the sphere of agriculture, finprom.kz reported. The increase amounted to 47 percent as compared to the same period in 2015. The volume of loans hit 699 billion tenge ($ 2.04 billion).
The share of agricultural product in loan portfolio of banks amounted to 6 percent as compared to the rate of 4 percent in 2015. The total worth of credits which were allocated to agrarian enterprises in January-May 2016 totaled 123 billion tenge ($0.36 billion).
The figure is 2.2 times higher than in the same period in 2015. The share of long-term and short-term credits became equal in 2015. Previously, major portion of credits were presented in the form of a short-term loan.
Total worth of long-term credits amounted to 88 billion tenge ($ 0.25 billion) in January-May 2016 while the worth of short-term credits totaled 36 billion tenge ($ 0.10 billion).
Kazakhstan increased the gross agricultural production by 4.4 percent in 2015 and brought it to 2.7 trillion tenges ($ 0.007 trillion). Crop production increased by 5.6 percent while increase in livestock products amounted to 3.2 percent in the reported period.
Climatic conditions of the country allow growing grain crops in the majority of regions.
The International Grains Council (IGC) forecasts Kazakhstan’s 2016-17 wheat production at the level of 13.5 million tonnes, down from 13.7 million tons in 2015.
Agriculture still remains small sector of the country’s economy. Nevertheless, the sphere is considered to be very important for tackling poverty and food security issues, as well as providing an important avenue for diversification of the economy.
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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova
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