Economy Kazakhstan
Economy - overview:
Kazakhstan, the largest of the former Soviet republics in
territory, excluding Russia, possesses enormous fossil fuel reserves
as well as plentiful supplies of other minerals and metals. It also
has a large agricultural sector featuring livestock and grain.
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 in 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. Kazakhstan
enjoyed double-digit growth in 2000-01 - and a solid 9.5% in 2002 -
thanks largely to its booming energy sector, but also to economic
reform, good harvests, and foreign investment. Growth remained at
the high 9% level in 2003 and 2004. The opening of the Caspian
Consortium pipeline in 2001, from western Kazakhstan's Tengiz
oilfield to the Black Sea, substantially raised export capacity. The
country has embarked upon an industrial policy designed to diversify
the economy away from overdependence on the oil sector, by
developing light industry. Additionally, the policy aims to reduce
the influence of foreign investment and foreign personnel; the
government has engaged in several disputes with foreign oil
companies over the terms of production agreements, and tensions
continue.
GDP (purchasing power parity):
$118.4 billion (2004 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
9.1% (2004 est.)
GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $7,800 (2004 est.)
GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 7.4% industry: 37.8% services: 54.8% (2004 est.)
Labor force:
7.95 million (2004 est.)
Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture 20%, industry 30%, services 50% (2002 est.)
Unemployment rate:
8% (2004 est.)
Population below poverty line:
19% (2004 est.)