National anthem:
name: "Menin Qazaqstanim" (My Kazakhstan)
lyrics/music: Zhumeken NAZHIMEDENOV and Nursultan NAZARBAYEV/Shamshi KALDAYAKOV
note: adopted 2006; President Nursultan NAZARBAYEV played a role in revising the lyrics
Economy ::Kazakhstan
Economy - overview:
Kazakhstan, geographically the largest of the former Soviet republics, excluding Russia, possesses enormous fossil fuel reserves and plentiful supplies of other minerals and metals, such as uranium, copper, and zinc. It also has a large agricultural sector featuring livestock and grain. Kazakhstan's industrial sector is primarily focused on the extraction and processing of these natural resources. Kazakhstan enjoyed double-digit growth in 2000-01 and 8% or more per year in 2002-07 - thanks largely to its booming energy sector but also to economic reform, good harvests, and increased foreign investment; GDP growth slowed dramatically following the near-collapse of the banking sector in late 2007 and the declines in oil and metals prices associated with the global economic downturn in 2008-09. Kazakhstan has embarked upon an industrial policy designed to diversify the economy away from overdependence on the oil sector as well expanding export markets away from its historical reliance on Russia. Nevertheless, growth is still driven by oil. The government has engaged in several disputes with Western oil companies over the terms of production agreements, most recently, with regard to the Kashagan project in 2007-08 and the Karachaganak project in 2009.
GDP (purchasing power parity):
$193.8 billion (2010 est.) country comparison to the world: 54 $184.8 billion (2009 est.)
$182.6 billion (2008 est.)