Bi-Weekly Economic News Summary

KAZAKHSTAN - In Brief 07 Mar 2024 by Evgeny Gavrilenkov

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Feb 22 Bureau of National Statistics: Agricultural production in Kazakhstan increased by 0.4% y-o-y in January Bureau of National Statistics: In January, investments in fixed capital in Kazakhstan grew by 0.6% y-o-y Ministry of Industry and Construction: In 2023, coal production in Kazakhstan declined by 1.1% y-o-y Feb 26 NBK: The National Bank of Kazakhstan cut the base rate from 15.25% to 14.75% with a corridor of plus or minus 1 pp Feb 27 Fitch: The agency has placed the long-term issuer default ratings of Bereke Bank (the former "daughter" of Russian Sberbank in Kazakhstan) on the Rating Watch Negative list due to potential change of controlling shareholder KMG: In 2023, the total volume of oil and gas condensate production by the KazMunayGas group in 2023 reached 23.5 mln tons of oil (in equivalent) and was up by 6.9% y-o-y Feb 28 Ministry of Transport: Kazakhstan and Japan may resume direct flights in 2025 Feb 29 Analysts’ poll: Inflation in Kazakhstan in February will be 8.9-9.5% y-o-y Analysts’ poll: Kazakhstan's GDP will grow by 3.7-5.1% y-o-y in 2M24 Mar 1 Bureau of National Statistics: Inflation in Kazakhstan in February accelerated to 1.1% m-o-m from 0.8% m-o-m in January. It turned 9.3% y-o-y in February (down from 9.5% y-o-y in January) National rail: KTZ has agreed with Chinese companies to send 3.5 ths transit container trains in 2024 Lukoil: The company has started construction of a solar power plant in Kazakhstan Mar 2 President: The Presidents of Kazakhstan and Russia had a telephone conversation and discussed the implementation of joint projects in various areas, such as trade, transport, logistics, energy, and general economic issues Mar 3 Energy M...