The EBRD has lowered to 2.9% its 2016 GDP growth forecast for Central Asia states

Almaty. November 4. Silkroadnews – The EBRD has lowered to 2.9% its 2016 GDP growth forecast for Central Asia states, press service of the bank representative office in Kazakhstan reported.

“Growth rates in Central Asia are slowing. The region, states of which depend on commodity exports and remittances from neighboring countries rich in raw materials, still has not recovered from changes in external factors, compounded by the investors’ shattered confidence”, the November EBRD forecast released on Friday states.

The growth forecast for Central Asia’s GDP was lowered by 0.4 percentage points to 2.9% for 2016 and by 0.1 percentage points to 3.9% for 2017.

In particular, Kazakhstan’s GDP growth is expected to amount to 0.7% by the end of 2016 and 2.4% in 2017, Kyrgyzstan’s indicators are expected at the 1.6% and 2.6% level respectively, Tajikistan’s – 4.5% and 4.1%, Turkmenistan’s – 6.5% and 7.1%, and Uzbekistan’s 6.5% and 6.2% respectively.

Indexes of Kazakhstan’s partners within the Eurasian Economic Union are forecasted to be slightly worse. “For two consecutive years Belarus has been experiencing the impact of the Russian economy’s recession”. In 2016 decline in Belarus’s GDP is projected as 3%, though, the EBRD experts also note, it is expected to be followed with 1% growth resumed in 2017.

The situation in Russia is evaluated by the report’s authors as a controversial. In 2016 Russia’s GDP decline is expected to make 0.6%. In 2017 GDP’s growth is expected at 1.2% level.

At the same time for Armenia GDP’s growth rates are projected to amount to 2% in 2016 and 2017, bank’s experts forecast.