Kazakhstan’s GDP growth accelerated to 4.4% in 1Q22 due to resilient growth across economic sectors during the quarter. For full year 2022, Kazakhstan’s economy is expected to have a lower growth trajectory than previous expectations due to geopolitics and higher inflation. However, the pace of growth will be supported by high commodity prices, the rise in budget spending and improvement on the pandemic situation.
Kazakhstan’s inflation accelerated to 12.0% in March from 8.7% in February, underpinned by rising prices for all inflation components. Kazakhstan’s inflation is expected to be higher than previous forecasts, due to imported inflation and the high share of imports in the consumption of non-food products. Reflecting this, inflation expectations for 12-month ahead was at 11.4% in March vs. 6.2% in February.
The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank project Kazakhstan’s GDP growth at 2.3% in 2022 (official target 2022: 2.1%)
