For three months, steady growth in GDP remains at 4.1% — Ministry of National Economy

At the meeting of the Government chaired by Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev, Minister of National Economy Timur Suleimenov and Chairman of the National Bank Daniyar Akishev reported on the results of the country's socio-economic development for 11 months of 2018.

Reporting on the state of the economy, the Minister of National Economy Timur Suleimenov noted that for three months the steady growth of GDP remained at 4.1%.

“The main factors of economic growth were high investment and consumer demand, as well as production activity in the basic sectors of the economy. Investments in fixed assets continue to play a key role in the growth of the economy. Over 11 months, their volumes increased by 18.3%,” Suleimenov reported.

According to the ministry, the expansion of industrial activity in industry and agriculture has had a positive impact on transport. Also, against the background of low inflation and growth of incomes of the population, trade increased. In general, the service sector provided a growth of 4% and contributed 2.3 pp to GDP growth.

Foreign trade keeps the trend of steady growth. For 9 months, there is an increase of 21.6%. Exports increased by 28.2%. This is mainly due to the increased supply of petroleum, agricultural products, petroleum gases, aluminum and copper ores.

“The situation on the labor market is stable. From early 2018, 468.6 thousand people were employed (as of Nov. 1). Wages are growing dynamically. In January-October, the average monthly salary increased to 159.5 thousand tenge. According to estimates, it grew by 2.2% in real terms,” Suleimenov reported, noting that real incomes increased in January-June in 13 regions of the country.

In general, against the background of a slowdown in inflation, according to the ministry, real money incomes by the end of the current year will remain in the positive zone.

At the same time, Suleimenov noted that in connection with the upcoming holidays, consumer demand will grow, respectively, there will be an increase in trade, which will positively affect the structure of GDP.

The Chairman of the National Bank Daniyar Akishev, in turn, reported that the inflation rate in November was 0.9%. Annual inflation remained at the level of October and amounted to 5.3%. This, according to the National Bank, is the lowest annual inflation rate since 2015. It is expected that by the end of the year inflation will be in the target corridor of 5-7%. It was noted that Dec. 5, 2018, the National Bank decided to keep the base rate at 9.25%. This decision will increase the demand for tenge and assets.

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