Kazakhstan trims GDP forecast as industrial output plunges

Gross domestic product may advance 5.8 percent this year, the Economic Development and Trade Ministry said in materials distributed today in the capital, Astana, trimming a February forecast for 6 percent growth.

Output at factories, mines and utilities fell 3.7 percent from a year earlier in August after a 0.5 percent decline in July, the state statistics agency today said on its website. That's more than the 1 percent drop predicted by the median estimate of seven economists in a Bloomberg survey. Oil production plunged 14.6 percent and natural-gas output fell 4.7 percent, the data showed.

GDP rose 5.6 percent from a year earlier in the first half of 2012, the State Statistics Agency said Aug. 14. President Nazarbayev had predicted May 23 that the economy would expand 7 percent this year. Policy makers cut the benchmark refinancing rate by a half-point to a record-low 5.5 percent last month, Kazinform has learnt from Bloomberg.