Assessment and recommendations

Kazakhstan has enjoyed a long period of stability and prosperity, with one of the world’s fastest growing economies over the past decade benefitting from high commodity prices. The past 15 years have been in contrast with the immediate post-independence period when the economy suffered from a sharp economic decline. Extensive reforms following independence, in 1991, started bringing benefits, supported by a sharp oil price increase beginning in 1999. Surging commodity prices supported a strong economic performance in particular between 2000-07, reflected in average annual growth of real GDP of 10.2%. On the demand side, growth had been driven by private consumption and private sector investment, fuelled by strong wage expansion and a credit boom increasingly funded by large scale foreign borrowing of Kazakh banks.