Kazakhstan's GDP grows more than 4% in year

Kazakhstan's GDP grew 4.4% year-on-year in January-November, Kazakh President's press service reported.

"GDP growth for January-November this year reached 4.4%, with steady progress achieved in key sectors as part of economic diversification. Agriculture saw an increase of 13.4%, construction grew 10.3%, trade 8.2%, transport 8.1% and manufacturing 5.3%, including metallurgy 7.2%, machine building 6.9%, chemical production 8.4% and information and communication 5.3%," Kazakh Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov said.

According to the PM, economic growth this year was primarily driven by the non-oil sector, which expanded by 5.1%. However, the shortfall in oil production targets dampened overall performance.

Efforts to support domestic manufacturers led to a 10.2% increase in processed goods exports to $23.3 billion, while imports fell 3.3%. Capital investment grew 3.1%, the biggest increases being in non-resource sectors.