OREANDA-NEWS. February 04, 2007. Karim Massimov, Prime-Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan, has had a meeting with representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), reported the Official website http://en.government.kz.

Senior Advisor in the IMF's Middle East and Central Asia Department David Owen introduced Timothy Callen, the new head of IMF’s Mission to Kazakhstan.

During the meeting they discussed global economic matters and development prospects for 2008.
According to the IMF experts a worldwide economic slowdown is expected in 2008. And it is quite possible that continuing turbulence at global financial markets could result in more unfavorable occupancies.

In the context of these developments economic environment surrounding Kazakhstan will remain complex, and access to international financial markets is likely to be limited for Kazakhstan. Consequently, GDP growth is expected to decline. However, in accordance with international standards, economic growth rate is still expected to be high in Kazakhstan. Decrease in the rate of inflation is expected – inflation surged in the second half of 2007 as a result of an upswing in food prices that occurred in many countries.

The IMF representatives praised the steps taken by Kazakh government “in the complicated environment of the global crisis”. The National Bank’s support to the commercial banks and a package of supportive budgetary measures carried out by Kazakh Government helped successfully manage of the situation.

In the opinion of the IMF experts, decent budget indicators and acceptable level of international reserves provide Kazakhstan with sufficient resources to continue resisting “external shocks”.

David Owen said that slowdown of economic growth rate in these conditions would help “increase economic management efficiency”. He emphasized that strengthening of supervision in the financial sectors is a crucial aspect of this process and that the IMF is ready to provide expert support in this area. It is also important to take steps to promote competition at internal markets, and therefore IMF welcomes creation of the Agency for Protection of Competition.

The IMF approves plans of the Government and the National Bank to curb inflation within 8-10% in 2008.

The IMF representatives agreed that, generally, within these conditions Government should rely on market decisions not resorting to administrative control of prices or access to foreign currency.