OREANDA-NEWS. August 31, 2009. The sides exchanged their views on the current situation at the global financial markets, discussed issues of bilateral cooperation in banking and dwelt on efforts taken by Sberbank to boost operations in the Kazakh financial market.

Kazakhstan’s Prime Minister Karim Massimov met Sberbank Chief Executive German Gref.

The sides exchanged their views on the current situation at the global financial markets, discussed issues of bilateral cooperation in banking and dwelt on efforts taken by Sberbank to boost operations in the Kazakh financial market.

According to German Gref, in the current year Sberbank has boosted its operations in Kazakhstan by 20% and plans to bring this figure up to 50% by the end of the year.

Head of Sberbank briefed the Prime Minister on implementation of agreements with Samruk-Kazyna National Welfare Fund reached by Presidents of Kazakhstan and Russia. “We discussed our projects being implemented in Kazakhstan and Russia. We have a vast plan to expand cooperation”, German Gref said.

When discussing the current macroeconomic situation and global crisis scenarios, the sides agreed that “both economies have already passed the peak of pressure” and are now entering recovery stage.

“We forecast a slight economic growth as early as next year”, German Gref said.

“Measures taken by the Government throughout this period have been rational steps, including bail-out of some Kazakhstan’s banks and [support to] the entire financial sector. Due to the measures, the nation has passed through the unprecedented crisis without any negative consequences for banks’ depositors and the country’s population as a whole. For the first time in the post-Soviet history the state has taken upon itself all the major problems and prevented serious losses”, he pointed out.