Kazakhstan current account deficit $3.7 billion

Kazakhstan's current account deficit was $3.7 billion at the end of the first half of 2009, compared with a $3.8 billion surplus at the end of the same period last year, the central bank said on Wednesday. The bank forecasts Kazakhstan's current account deficit for the whole of 2009 will be 2 percent to 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). In 2008, the surplus was $8.9 billion.
Kazakhstan's economy contracted by 2.3 percent in the first six months of the year, compared with growth of 5.4 percent in the same year-earlier period. Kazakhstan expects GDP to rise by 0.1 percent for the whole of 2009 by squeezing out growth of 1.8-2.0 percent in the second half of the year, although many analysts have forecast a decline.