The economic relations of Kazakhstan with Russia are becoming stronger, as evidenced by key indicators of international economic relations. In the first 9 months of 2018 alone, the inflow of investments from the Russian Federation into the national economy amounted to US$ 1.2 billion; in previous year, Russian investments amounted to US$ 877 million (+ 34.4% per year) for the same period.
Along with the growing investment flows from Russia, their share in total FDI flows also increases *. Their share over the past three years has increased from 3% to 6.8%. It should be reminded that the total amount of FDI increased over the same period from 11.7 billion to 17.3 billion US dollars (January – September 2015–2018).
In the geographical structure of investment flows, FDI inflows from the Russian Federation are in 4th place – after the Netherlands (4.8 billion US dollars), the USA (4 billion US dollars) and Switzerland (2.2 billion US dollars). In addition, Russia has traditionally been the absolute leader in investments in Kazakhstan among the EEU countries.
The top priority sectors for Russian investors are manufacturing ($ 3 billion), mining ($ 2.6 billion) and trade ($ 2 billion). The total investment in these sectors at the end of September 2018 amounted to $ 7.5 billion.
* Foreign directo investments.
In 2018, mutual trade between Kazakhstan and Russia amounted to $ 17.6 billion, which is by 9.8% higher than in 2017 (US$ 16 billion).
As of January 2019, the share in the trade with the Russian Federation in the total volume is 16.5% . Let us remind that the total volume of foreign trade of Kazakhstan in the same period (for January of the current year) amounted to 7.6 billion US dollars.
The basis of mutual trade between the countries is formed by imports from Russia, which share is 70.5% (US$ 881 million); in turn, the export of Kazakhstani goods and services is 29.5% (US$ 367.9 million). This ratio of imports and exports indicates not only a certain level of dependence of Kazakhstan on Russian goods, but also the export potential of domestic products.
As of February 2019, 12.3 thousand enterprises with foreign participation were registered in Kazakhstan, of which 5 thousand – with the participation of Russia, which is many times higher than in all other countries. For comparison, Turkey is in second place – only 907 enterprises, China rounds up the top three – 786 companies.
Among the total number of registered enterprises, 7.1 thousand (57.8%) are active. Russian entrepreneurs are leading here as well: 3.1 thousand (62.4%) of the registered ones are operating enterprises.
In 2018, Kazakhstan and Russia jointly organized more than 10 global projects: from the production of a multipurpose Il-103 aircraft to joint projects in the field of cybersecurity and digitalization of the economy.
It should be reminded that during the Annual Address to the People of Kazakhstan the leader of the nation N. Nazarbayev called Kazakhstan’s relations with Russia a benchmark of interstate relations.
In 2017, according to the World Bank, Kazakhstan’s economy exceeded the global growth rates. Thus, according to the results of 2017, global GDP increased by 3.1%, while Kazakhstan’s GDP growth was 4.1%. The Russian economy, in turn, showed an increase by 1.5%.
In trends of 2010–2017, the national economy showed growth of a maximum of 7.4% in 2011 and a minimum of 1.1% in 2016. At the same time, the GDP of the Russia recorded an increase by 5.3% in 2011, and in 2015–2016 the growth was replaced by a fall of 2.8% and 0.2%, respectively.
