Industrial output up 4.6% in Kazakhstan in Jan-Aug
ALMATY. Sept 14 (Interfax) - Industrial enterprises in Kazakhstan produced product worth 10.235 trillion tenge in January-August this year, representing 4.6% year-on-year growth, the country's State Statistics Agency reported.
Output in the country's mining and extracting industry was worth 6.616 trillion tenge (up 2.7%) and in its manufacturing industry - 2.972 trillion tenge (up 7.4%).
Output in the utilities (power, gas, steam, air conditioning) sector increased 7.2% to 555 billion tenge, while production in the supply of water decreased 0.8% to 92 billion tenge.
Kazakhstan generated 756 billion tenge worth of agricultural products during the eight months, 0.1% more year-on-year. Output in livestock farming was up 0.4% at 591.2 billion tenge, but in crop farming it was down 1.3% at 162.6 billion tenge.
Cargo turnover in Jan-Aug amounted to 270.983 billion tonne/kilometer (up 15.3% year-on-year), including rail transport - 139.896 billion t/km (up 3.7%), road transport - 62.226 billion t/km (up 47.4%), maritime transport - 2.133 billion t/km (up 13.4%), air transport - 58.1 million t/km (up 10.8%), and river transport - 50.6 million t/km (up 16.5%).
Pipelines in Kazakhstan increased turnover 18.9% to 66.619 billion t/km, including oil pipelines - 9.1% to 42.173 billion t/km, and gas pipelines - 40.8% to 24.446 billion t/km.
Passenger transport amounted to 113.164 billion passenger/km for the eight months, up 25.4%.
The volume construction work and services increased 2.7% to 1.157 trillion tenge. Home construction was worth 248.2 billion tenge (up 28.4%). There was 3.610 million square meters of housing produced (down 2.5%).
Investment in fixed capital in Kazakhstan increased 0.9% in Jan-Aug to 2.771 trillion tenge. The statistics indicate that the sector most attractive to investment was the mining and extraction industry, which accounted for 36% of investments. The main sources of investment were companies', organizations', and private citizens' own coffers.
Kazakhstan ended July with a seven-month foreign trade surplus of $28.5 billion, up 46.2%. Foreign trade turnover in Jan-Jul was up 41.1% at $71.5 billion, including $50 billion in exports (up 44%) and $21.5 billion in imports (up 34.6%).
The official exchange rate for September 14: 147.34 tenge/$1.