OREANDA-NEWS. July 29, 2013. Kazakh Prime Minister Serik Akhmetov has held a meeting of the Government on the socio-economic development of the country in the first half of this year. Minister of Economy and Budget Planning Yerbolat Dossayev delivered a keynote speech.

"Despite the volatility in the global economy, in the first half of the year Kazakhstan's GDP, according to preliminary estimates, increased by 5.1%, in line with our forecasts," the Minister said.

According to him, inflation in January-June was 2.7%, and remained at the same level as last year, on an annualized basis it was 5.9%. Exports decreased by 10.8% and imports of goods increased by 10.3%. Mutual trade with the countries of the Customs Union in January-May 2013 increased by 1.8% to more than 9.4 billion U.S. dollars.

Kazakhstan's international reserves have grown since the beginning of the year by 4.1% and reached 89.6 billion U.S. dollars. In particular, the gross international reserves of the country amounted to 26.1 billion U.S. dollars and decreased from the beginning of the year by 7.6% mainly due to lower gold prices. National Fund assets in foreign currency amounted to 63.5 billion U.S. dollars, and grew from the beginning of the year by 9.8%.

The Minister noted that the main driver of economic growth is still the growth of services sector by 7.6%, the contribution to the economy was 0.4%, while the production of goods increased by 1.8%, which increased GDP by 0.7%. Trade grew by 12.5%, transport services - 7%, telecom services - 14.6%.

Industrial growth was 1.8%, mining sector grew by 2.2%, manufacturing - by 1.8%. Investment in real estate totaled 212.7 billion tenge and increased by 20.4%, 2.9 million square meters of housing were commissioned.

According to the Minister, achieving positive growth in the economy, preservation of investment activity is largely due to the implementation of forced industrial innovative program. 34 projects worth 71.6 billion tenge with the creation of 2.3 million permanent jobs were launched in the first half of 2013.

"The positive trends in the economy allowed to maintain social stability in the country and ensure the welfare of citizens. From the beginning of the year, the real income of the population increased by 2.4%, real wages - by 0.5%. The unemployment rate in June was 5.2%," Dossayev noted.

Minister of Finance Bolat Zhamishev reported on the execution of the state budget. So, for six months of 2013 the state budget received 3.16 billion tenge or 97.6% of the plan, budget revenues declined by 2.2% as compared to the same period last year.

Tax revenues were executed by 102.7%, or with over-fulfillment in the amount of 42.8 billion tenge, compared to the corresponding period of the previous year.

"During the accounting period we have managed to achieve 5.1% growth in the gross domestic product. Despite the impact of external factors putting pressure on the economy of our country, a 6% economic growth should be achieved this year," Serik Akhmetov said.

In this regard, he instructed the Ministry of Economy and interested state agencies to organize continuous monitoring of the macroeconomic situation in the country, taking into account the emerging trends in the world economy. If necessary, make proposals for adjusting the current anti-crisis measures, taking into account the new realities.

The Ministry of Economy together with the Natural Monopolies Regulation Agency should continue to work to build a balanced tariff policy. The Ministry of Finance should more strictly monitor the situation with the state budget. "The heads of state bodies should personally monitor the situation with the use of the allocated budget," the head of the Government urged.

Also, the Ministry of Economy in cooperation with the administrators of budget programs were instructed to prepare and submit to the Majilis until September 1, 2013 a three-year budget for 2014-2016 and a socio-economic development forecast for the same period.

The Ministry of Agriculture was urged to perform the harvesting campaign on time and without losses, and the Ministry of Oil and Gas to provide the necessary amount of fuel.