Mother Earth Travel > Country Index > Kazakhstan > Map Economy History |
| Economy - overview: Kazakhstan, the second largest of the former
Soviet republics in territory, possesses enormous fossil fuel reserves as
well as plentiful supplies of other minerals and metals. It also is a
large agricultural - livestock and grain - producer. Kazakhstan's
industrial sector rests on the extraction and processing of these natural
resources and also on a growing machine-building sector specializing in
construction equipment, tractors, agricultural machinery, and some defense
items. The breakup of the USSR in December 1991 and the collapse of 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. The Caspian Pipeline
Consortium agreement to build a new pipeline from western Kazakhstan's
Tengiz oil field to the Black Sea increases prospects for substantially
larger oil exports in several years. Kazakhstan's economy again turned
downward in 1998 with a 2% decline in GDP due to slumping oil prices and
the August financial crisis in Russia. The recovery of international oil
prices in 1999, combined with a well-timed tenge devaluation and a bumper
grain harvest, pulled the economy out of recession in 2000. Astana has
embarked upon an industrial policy designed to diversify the economy away
from overdependence on the oil sector by developing light industry. GDP:
purchasing power parity - $85.6 billion (2000 est.) SOURCE: The World Factbook |
Mother Earth Travel > Country Index > Kazakhstan > Map Economy History