Kazakhstan Economy 2001

Economy - overview: Kazakhstan, the second largest of the former Soviet republics in territory, possesses enormous fossil fuel reserves as well as plentiful supplies of other minerals and metals. It also is a large agricultural - livestock and grain - producer. Kazakhstan's industrial sector rests on the extraction and processing of these natural resources and also on a growing machine-building sector specializing in construction equipment, tractors, agricultural machinery, and some defense items. The breakup of the USSR in December 1991 and the collapse of 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. The Caspian Pipeline Consortium agreement to build a new pipeline from western Kazakhstan's Tengiz oil field to the Black Sea increases prospects for substantially larger oil exports in several years. Kazakhstan's economy again turned downward in 1998 with a 2% decline in GDP due to slumping oil prices and the August financial crisis in Russia. The recovery of international oil prices in 1999, combined with a well-timed tenge devaluation and a bumper grain harvest, pulled the economy out of recession in 2000. Astana has embarked upon an industrial policy designed to diversify the economy away from overdependence on the oil sector by developing light industry.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $85.6 billion (2000 est.)

GDP - real growth rate: 10.5% (2000 est.)

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $5,000 (2000 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 10%
industry: 30%
services: 60% (1999 est.)

Population below poverty line: 35% (1999 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 2.7%
highest 10%: 26.3% (1996)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 13.4% (2000 est.)

Labor force: 8.8 million (1997)

Labor force - by occupation: industry 27%, agriculture 23%, services 50% (1996)

Unemployment rate: 13.7% (1998 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $3.1 billion
expenditures: $3.6 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (1999 est.)

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

Industrial production growth rate: 14.9% (2000 est.)

Electricity - production: 44.36 billion kWh (1999)

Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel: 87.12%
hydro: 12.65%
nuclear: 0.23%
other: 0% (1999)

Electricity - consumption: 44.132 billion kWh (1999)

Electricity - exports: 200 million kWh (1999)

Electricity - imports: 3.077 billion kWh (1999)

Agriculture - products: grain (mostly spring wheat), cotton; wool, livestock

Exports: $8.8 billion (f.o.b., 2000 est.)

Exports - commodities: oil 40%, ferrous and nonferrous metals, machinery, chemicals, grain, wool, meat, coal

Exports - partners: EU 23%, Russia 20%, China 8% (1999)

Imports: $6.9 billion (f.o.b., 2000 est.)

Imports - commodities: machinery and parts, industrial materials, oil and gas, vehicles

Imports - partners: Russia 37%, US, Uzbekistan, Turkey, UK, Germany, Ukraine, South Korea (1999)

Debt - external: $12.5 billion (2000 est.)

Economic aid - recipient: $409.6 million (1995)

Currency: tenge (KZT)

Currency code: KZT

Exchange rates: tenge per US dollar - 145.09 (January 2001), 142.13 (2000), 119.52 (1999), 78.30 (1998), 75.44 (1997), 67.30 (1996)

Fiscal year: calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Kazakhstan on this page is re-published from the 2001 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Kazakhstan Economy 2001 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Kazakhstan Economy 2001 should be addressed to the CIA.