The budget’s priority focuses were expenditures to support the citizens and real sector given the state of emergency
Kazakhstan’s real economy was up 2% in 2020, Kazakh Finance Minister Yrulan Zhamaubayev told a plenary session of the Senate, Kazinform reports.
During the session, the Kazakh finance minister said that the execution of the national budget was carried out in the context of considerable reduction in business activities due to the global crisis in 2020. There was the GDP real decline of 2.6%, mainly due to decreased service production by 5.4% as the quarantine measures were in place. Despite that, there was a 2% increase in the real economy.
In particular, construction rose by 11.2%, information and communications – by 8.7%, agriculture – by 5.6%, and manufacturing – by 3.9%. However, there was a 3.4% fall in fixed capital investments.
According to the minister, the budget’s priority focuses were expenditures to support the citizens and real sector given the state of emergency. Those include social allowance adjustment, reduction of tax burdens on SMEs, and costs for the Employment Roadmap, Business Roadmap, Enbek, and so on.
He added that the comprehensive plan to recover the economic growth was adopted.
The affected sectors were supported by fiscal incentives and relaxation, covering 7000 thousand entrepreneurs. 40 thousand SMEs received financing at a reduced interest rate. Over 80% of the borrowers were given deferrals.
Zhamaubayev added that the measures helped maintain the unemployment rate at 4.9%.
Photo: kapital.kz.
