Kazakhstan's economic growth for the first quarter of 2020
The Government session, chaired by the Prime Minister Askar Mamin, considered the outcomes of the country's socio-economic development and the implementation of the republican budget for January-March 2020.
The Minister of National Economy Ruslan Dalenov, the Chairman of the National Bank Erbolat Dossayev, the First Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance Alikhan Smailov reported on the state of the economy, banking sector, execution of the republican budget, local content in government procurement, the Chairman of SWF Samruk-Kazyna Akhmetzhan Yessimov told about indicators of the Fund’s companies, the Minister of Industry and Infrastructure Development Beibut Atamkulov and the Minister of Energy Nurlan Nogayev reported on the issues in the industry and energy sectors, Akims of Kostanay, Almaty and Aktobe regions Archimed Mukhambetov, Amandyk Batalov and Ondasyn Urazalin spoke about the regional development.
In January-March this year, GDP growth amounted to 2.7% compared to the corresponding period of 2019. Investments into the fixed assets increased by 5.1%. Gold and foreign exchange reserves reached $30 billion, assets of the National Fund - $57.5 billion.
The basic industries of the country as a whole show positive dynamics. Growth in the mining industry amounted to 5%, manufacturing - 8.8%, construction - 11.7%, engineering - 30.4%. At the same time, the consequences of restrictions due to the pandemic are gradually taking place - in the first quarter of this year the growth in trade was 1%, in the financial sector and insurance services - 0.7%, and the transport sector showed negative dynamics, having decreased by 1.3%.
According to the outcomes of the first quarter of this year in terms of key indicators, the outpacing growth rates of socio-economic development were achieved by Akmola, West Kazakhstan, Turkestan, Kostanay, Karaganda regions as well as Nur-Sultan city, the average republican values were achieved by Almaty, Aktobe, Mangistau, North Kazakhstan, Pavlodar, East Kazakhstan regions and Almaty city, the low republican level in some indicators were demonstrated by Atyrau, Zhambyl, Kyzylorda regions, as well as Shymkent city.
The Head of the Government instructed the first heads of central and local executive agencies to keep under control the timely and high-quality development of budget funds, including bringing them to the real sectors of the economy.
The Prime Minister stressed that in response to the current challenges in the global and regional economies, the Government has adopted and is implementing a set of anti-crisis measures - the Employment Roadmap has been approved, a number of state programs to expand construction have been increased, tax incentives of SMEs have been introduced, and the program of concessional lending “Economy of Simple Things".
“All necessary measures have been taken, work must now be in full swing in the regions. It all depends on the coherence and effectiveness of the work of the state agencies”, said A. Mamin, instructing to ensure control over the implementation of anti-crisis measures in the regions with strict sanitary and epidemiological measures.