The Statistics Committee of the Ministry of National Economy of Kazakhstan announced data, according to which, trade between the republic and other member states decreased significantly in the first half of 2015 ($7.8 billion).
Kazakhstan exports dropped by 26.8% ($2.3 billion) and imports by 18.2% ($5.5 billion), compared with the volumes of the same period last year.
The head of the Central Asia Department of the CIS Institute, Andrei Grozin, said in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza that we should not dramatize the situation. "This is a reflection of the general economic trends. Take a look at the statistics of turnover in the republics of Central Asia, for example, in China there is also a decrease," he explained.
"The global economic recession, low prices in commodity markets are things that directly affect the economy of Kazakhstan. The main budget spheres are energy sources, products of primary processing of the mining and metallurgical complex in Kazakhstan. Prices are falling, but the physical volume of deliveries remain the same. Accordingly, there is less money in the budget. Now there is talk that the budget for 2016 will be quite tough," the expert said.
"While there is a fall in oil prices, then, accordingly, the economic performance of all the former Soviet republics will deteriorate, as the complex relationships which exist at the macroeconomic level are rather ambiguous. They show a negative trend. The Russian economy has the same problem as the Belarusian economy does, as well as the Azerbaijani economy, which is not included in the EEU," Andrei Grozin concluded.
The chairman of the Board of Suppliers of the Customs Union, Oleg Noginsky, in his turn, explained the current status was due to exchange rate fluctuations. "In fact, today there is a picture of failure of the Russian and Belarusian ruble against the dollar. The currency of Kazakhstan is held at the level where it was a year ago. Accordingly, today it is more profitable to produce and sell on the territories of Russia and Belarus. This is due to the situation on the currency market in the Eurasian Union," the expert noted.
"In fact, we can blame the ruble here. It is necessary to down the rate of the Kazakh tenge, so that domestic production can compete with imports, or to do what Belarus did. The fact is that if the currency weakens in any country, the goods in this country became more competitive," Oleg Noginsky stressed.
