ASTANA, Kazakhstan, September 27. Kazakhstan’s trade turnover amounted to $67.2 billion in the first half of 2023, which is 4.3 percent higher than for the same period in 2022 ($64.5 billion), said Minister of Trade and Integration of Kazakhstan Arman Shakkaliyev during a press conference, Trend reports.
"Trade turnover with the countries of the European Union for the first half of 2023 amounted to $20.2 billion, trade turnover with China was $13.6 billion, showing an increase of 20.5 percent compared to last year. Positive dynamics are observed in mutual trade with the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union. For six months of 2023, compared to the same period last year, the growth was 4.1 percent (from $13.3 billion to $13.8 billion)," he said.
As Shakkaliyev noted, work is underway to diversify the trade and economic routes of Kazakhstan in a southern direction - access to the markets of South Asia and the Middle East, as well as to the ports of the Indian Ocean (Gwadar, Karachi) and the Persian Gulf (Chabahar, Bandar Abbas). "We are actively working on promoting our products to the markets of the EU, US, and Southeast Asia. By 2027, it is planned to increase the volume of non-commodity exports to $46.5 billion," he said.
The minister noted that Kazakhstan plans to create five cross-border hubs for a single trade and transport area and strengthen strategic relations with partner countries in order to ensure an average increase in trade turnover with them of 30 percent.
"For 8 months in 2023, domestic trade turnover amounted to 35.7 billion tenge (about $74.2 million) and increased by 21 percent compared to the same period in 2022. The volume of attracted investments in trade over 8 months increased by 37.6 percent (from 163.6 billion tenge (about $340 million) to 225.1 billion tenge (about $467.8 million)). At the end of 8 months, inflation amounted to 6.6 percent (the same period in 2022 - 13.3 percent). The price index for socially significant food products at the end of 8 months was 3.4 percent (2022–19.1 percent), which is 5.6 times lower than the rate of 2022," he added.
