ADB reviews forecast for Kazakhstan’s economic growth

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) updated its GDP growth forecast on Kazakhstan in 2015, the bank’s Asian Development Outlook 2014 report, released on March 24 said.

Kazakhstan’s GDP growth is expected to reach 1.9 percent in 2015 and 3.8 percent in 2016, according to the report.

“Despite the launch of the Eurasian Economic Union with Armenia, Belarus, and the Russian Federation, growth is forecast to slow to 1.9 percent in 2015. This reflects slumping oil prices, economic weakness in the Russian Federation, and tenge appreciation against the ruble, which has hurt the competitiveness of Kazakh exports and boosted imports from the Russian Federation. Growth is projected to recover to 3.8 percent in 2016 as the economy adjusts to low oil prices and as stimulus measures take hold,” the report says.

In 2014 growth moderated to 4.3 percent from 6.0 percent in 2013, mainly because slow
global growth cut demand for Kazakhstan’s main export commodities: oil, coal, metals, chemicals, and grain, according to ADB. Conditions worsened with a sharp decline in oil prices and spillover from sanctions on Russia, a major trading partner.

Inflation is expected to reach 6.0 percent in 2015 and 6.2 percent in 2016 in Kazakhstan compared to 6.7 percent in 2014 and 5.8 percent in 2013, ADB forecasts.
ADB was established in 1966 and has 67 members. The bank's headquarters is located in the capital of the Philippines, Manila. Azerbaijan joined ADB on December 22, 1999. The country's share in the bank's capital is 0.5 percent.
ADB's leading shareholders are Japan and the United States (31.2 percent of the total share capital), India and China (12.8 percent), Australia, South Korea and Canada (16 percent) and so on.

/By Trend/