IMF recognizes Kazakh anti-crisis policy as successful

ASTANA. KAZINFORM - The International Monetary Fund recognized Kazakhstan's anti-crisis policy success. This was said today by the head of IMF mission in Kazakhstan Mark Horton at a press conference.

"In 2016, the estimated growth rate was about 1 percent. It was negative in the first, and then rebounded slightly in the second half of the year. We believe that the response of the authorities has been successful and Kazakhstan was able to cope with the challenges of economic stabilization. And so it began recovering from the economic shocks, which occurred in 2014", said Mark Horton.

According to him, the responses to the destabilization of the economy were economic and other reforms initiated by President Nazarbayev. "It is "Nurly Zhol" program - an initiative that has provided significant additional funding for investment and infrastructure projects, providing assistance to SME, in housing and other sectors", - he explained. Secondly, the monetary and exchange rate policy, of the National Bank in recent years played its role in stabilizing the economy.

"I have been to Almaty a year ago, and the situation was quite different. Devaluation happened. There was a high interest rate change. A year later, we see that the situation has stabilized. And that is why the National Bank's actions have helped to stabilize the domestic money market. This is partly due to the strengthening of oil prices, partly to control the efficiency of monetary sphere by the National Bank. We see that the inflation decreased from 18 percent in the middle of the year to 8.5 percent today. We expect that these rates to slow down", said the expert.

Implementation of 100 Concrete Steps program was another response measure to the growing complexity of the situation. It focuses on the business climate, improving and increasing the efficiency of public administration, enhancing the transparency and accountability of public administration as well as the rule of law.

According to IMF forecasts, the rate of economic growth in Kazakhstan in 2017 should reach 2.5%.

Mark Horton held a press conference on the completion of IMF mission's visit to Kazakhstan during which he gave an overview of Kazakhstan's economy.