Kazakstan Economy 1997

Economy - overview Kazakstan, the second largest of the former Soviet states in territory,possesses enormous untapped fossil fuel reserves as well as plentiful suppliesof other minerals and metals. It also has considerable agricultural potentialwith its vast steppe lands accommodating both livestock and grain production.Kazakstan's industrial sector rests on the extraction and processing of thesenatural resources and also on a relatively large machine building sector specializingin construction equipment, tractors, agricultural machinery, and some defenseitems. The breakup of the USSR and the collapse of demand for Kazakstan'straditional heavy industry products have resulted in a sharp contraction ofthe economy since 1991, with the steepest annual decline occurring in 1994.In 1995-96 the pace of the government program of economic reform and privatizationquickened, resulting in a substantial shifting of assets into the privatesector. The December 1996 signing of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium agreementto build a new pipeline from Kazakstan's western Tengiz oil field to the BlackSea increases prospects for substantially larger oil exports in several years.The emigration of large numbers of skilled Slavic managers and techniciansfrom the northern industrial areas will hold back future growth.

GDP purchasing power parity - $48.6 billion (1996 estimate as extrapolatedfrom World Bank estimate for 1994)

GDP - real growth rate 1.1% (1996 est.)

GDP - per capita purchasing power parity - $2,880 (1996 est.)

GDP - composition by sector
agriculture: 12%
industry: 30%
services : 58% (1995)

Inflation rate - consumer price index 28.7% (1996 est.)

Labor force
total: 6.9 million
by occupation: industry 27%, agriculture and forestry 23%, other 50% (1996)

Unemployment rate 2.6% includes only officially registered unemployed; also large additionalnumbers of unemployed and underemployed workers (December 1996 est.)

Budget
revenues: $NA
expenditures : $NA, including capital expenditures of $NA

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;much of industrial capacity is shut down and/or is in need of repair

Industrial production growth rate 0.3% (1996 est.)

Electricity - capacity 17 million kW 000 kW

Electricity - production 58.9 billion kWh

Electricity - consumption per capita 3,800 kWh (1996 est.)

Agriculture - products grain, mostly spring wheat, cotton; wool, meat

Exports
total value: $5.7 billion (1996 est.)
commodities: oil, ferrous and nonferrous metals, chemicals, grain, wool, meat, coal
partners: Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Netherlands, China

Imports
total value : $6 billion (1996 est.)
commodities: machinery and parts, industrial materials, oil and gas
partners: Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Germany

Debt - external $3.5 billion (July 1996)

Economic aid
recipient: ODA, $10 million (1993)
note: commitments, 1992-95, $4,780 million ($1,795 million disbursements)

Currency 1 Kazakstani tenge = 100 tiyn

Exchange rates tenges per US$1 - 74.70 (January 1997), 67.30 (1996), 60.95 (1995),35.54 (1994)

Fiscal year calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Kazakstan on this page is re-published from the 1997 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Kazakstan Economy 1997 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Kazakstan Economy 1997 should be addressed to the CIA.