Asia > Kazakhstan > Economy

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Agriculture > products grain (mostly spring wheat), cotton; livestock
Aid as % of GDP	1%		[90th of 129]
Debt > External	$93,900,000,000.00		[34th of 136]
Distribution of family income > Gini index	30.4		[26th of 43]
Economic freedom	1.5		[125th of 156]
Economy > Overview Kazakhstan, the largest of the former Soviet republics in territory, excluding Russia, possesses enormous fossil fuel reserves and 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. 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 - 8% or more per year in 2002-07 - thanks largely to its booming energy sector, but also to economic reform, good harvests, and foreign investment. Inflation, however, jumped to more than 10% in 2007. In the energy sector, the opening of the Caspian Consortium pipeline in 2001, from western Kazakhstan's Tengiz oilfield to the Black Sea, substantially raised export capacity. In 2006 Kazakhstan completed the Atasu-Alashankou portion of an oil pipeline to China that is planned in future construction to extend from the country's Caspian coast eastward to the Chinese border. The country has embarked upon an industrial policy designed to diversify the economy away from overdependence on the oil sector by developing its manufacturing potential. 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; tensions continue. Upward pressure on the local currency continued in 2007 due to massive oil-related foreign-exchange inflows. Aided by strong growth and foreign exchange earnings, Kazakhstan aspires to become a regional financial center and has created a banking system comparable to those in Central Europe.
Exports	$48,350,000,000.00		[51st of 189]
GDP	$77,236,900,000.00		[51st of 203]
GDP > PPP	$112,091,000,000.00		[55th of 163]
GDP > Real growth rate	8.5%		[26th of 198]
GDP growth > annual %	9.7 annual %		[9th of 187]
GINI index	33.91		[27th of 40]
Gross National Income	$20,078,200,000.00		[55th of 172]
Human Development Index	0.761		[80th of 178]
Income category	Lower middle income
Income distribution > Poorest 10%	2.7%		[53rd of 114]
Income distribution > Richest 10%	26.3%		[80th of 114]
Population below poverty line	13.8%		[17th of 46]
Poverty > Share of all poor people	0.04 % of world's poor		[57th of 80]
Public debt	7.7 % of GDP		[111st of 121]

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