BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 5. Kazakhstan's economic growth is highly dependent on the export of primary commodities, especially hydrocarbons and metals, Amélie Schurich Rey, economist and policy analyst, Eurasia Division, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Directorate for Global Relations and Cooperation, told Trend.
"An ambitious reform agenda has supported Kazakhstan's sustained economic growth for over two decades, focusing on private sector participation in economic development, diversification of employment, output, and exports, and integration into regional and international value chains. However, growth remains highly dependent on primary commodity exports, particularly hydrocarbons and metals. Among regional peers, only Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan have more concentrated export baskets than Kazakhstan, which also largely exceeds the concentration of comparable resource-rich OECD countries such as Australia and Canada," she said.
According to her, in 2023, hydrocarbon products still accounted for over 53 percent of all exports and generated 15 percent of GDP. Data from the Kazakh Bureau of National Statistics suggests that the primary sector as a whole (hydrocarbons, metals, and agricultural products) generated over 85 percent of total exports in 2023.
"This continuing reliance on hydrocarbons and minerals reflects low levels of competitiveness in processing sectors, the underdevelopment of the private sector, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and connectivity barriers that firms continue to face in international trade. In addition, the country’s trend rate of growth has also been gradually declining over the past two decades, which might be indicative of the fact that the boom in the commodity sector has not been matched by productivity growth in other sectors, notably agriculture and services," the analyst noted.
Meanwhile, the nominal volume of GDP in Kazakhstan amounted to 120 trillion tenge (about $264.2 billion) from January through December 2023. GDP growth compared to 2022 was 5.1 percent.
The greatest growth was shown by construction (13.3 percent), wholesale and retail trade; repair of cars and motorcycles (11.3 percent), information and communications (7.5 percent), transport and warehousing (7.1 percent), provision of accommodation and food services (5.4 percent), and mining and quarrying (4.6 percent) industries.
At the same time, the nation's GDP per capita in 2023 amounted to $13,276.
