BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 6. Kazakhstan's business activity experienced a slight deceleration while still maintaining a positive stance, with the index standing at 50.6 points in May, Director of the National Bank of Kazakhstan's Monetary Policy Department Rustem Orazalin said, Trend reports.
According to him, the reason behind the slight slowdown is long delivery times which continue to impede business activity across all sectors.
The positive trend was only observed in production sector, where the business activity index shifted into positive territory, reaching 50.2 compared to 49.4 in April. The business activity index in the services sector remained positive at 51.1, albeit slightly lower than April's figure of 51.8.
In contrast, the construction and mining industries demonstrated a decline in business activity, recording indices of 49.6 (compared to 49.9 in April) and 49.5 (compared to 49.8 in April), respectively. In the mining industry, this shift can be attributed to a reduction in inventory volumes.
Meanwhile, although the construction industry showed an increase in the volume of new orders, extended delivery times and reduced employment levels contributed to a decrease in the business activity index.
Despite these fluctuations, the business climate index experienced a slight upturn, reflecting improved assessments of current and future business conditions.
The business activity index is an indicator that characterizes the state of the economy in the real sector and allows to study the dynamics of economic trends, and critical and turning points of the business cycle.
