This year’s economic growth is projected at about 6%. Industrial production growth is expected to be slightly more than 3%, but the activity will grow faster in the services sector.

Kazakhstan’s 2012 inflation will make up 5.5%, according to forecasts by the Troika Dialog investment company. At the same time the company’s analysts pointed out that inflation in January-February 2012 was 0.7% against 3.2% a year earlier while the annual inflation rate slowed down in late February to 4.7% from 7.4% at end-December 2011. Moreover, Troika believes that Kazakhstan’s GDP growth will amount to 6% this year and industrial output will grow by 3%. According to the report, the production in basic sectors grew by 4.6% over the past two months in 2012 compared to last year’s levels. Trade turnover, which grew by 14.1% against February 2011, has become the main engine of economic growth at the beginning of the year. However, investment activity did not increase much or by 5.5%. External conditions remain favorable for Kazakhstan, as the price of Urals exceeded 120 US dollars per barrel, the report says. Analysts also noted a very rapid growth in revenues outpacing productivity.