German investments in Kazakhstan decreased by 22%
Meanwhile, trade between the two countries has also declined by 30% over the year, Finprom.kz reports.
Following the results of 12 months of 2018, trade between Germany and Kazakhstan increased by 10.8% per year and amounted to $2.1 billion (a year earlier - $1.9 billion). 78.1% of the total turnover was accounted for the import of goods and services from Germany to Kazakhstan, the sum amounted to $1.6 billion (+ 10.9% per year). Export from Kazakhstan to Germany reached 21.9%, or $462.7 million, an increase of 10.6% for the year.
Meanwhile, in January-August this year, trade amounted to $1.1 billion, which is 30.4% less than in the same period last year ($1.5 billion). Import amounted to $860.4 million (−27% per year), export - $203.3 million (−41.9% per year).
At the end of September 2019, 606 companies with assets from Germany have been operating in Kazakhstan. Of these, 575 are small enterprises, 20 are medium-sized enterprises, and 10 are large companies.
At end-June this year, Kazakhstan’s obligations to investors from Germany amounted to $1.7 billion, up 4.5% from the same period a year earlier ($1.6 billion). For example, Germany is one of the ten countries leading in terms of investments in the manufacturing industry of Kazakhstan ($396.5 million); $111.8 million was invested in electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning, and $181.8 million - in professional, scientific and technical activities.
In addition, work continues on the creation of new projects. So, in October this year, during the Kazakh-German business forum in Berlin, agreements were reached on the implementation of investment projects with German companies for a total amount of about $700 million. It is planned that documents on the implementation of the investment projects will be signed in December this year.
In general, 4 investment projects with the participation of German assets in the amount of more than $183 million in the field of trade, industry and renewable energy sources were implemented in Kazakhstan in 2018. The implementation of these projects created about 400 new workplaces.
Meanwhile, according to the results of the first half of this year, the gross inflow of foreign direct investment from Germany to Kazakhstan amounted to $169.4 million, the amount decreased by 22.4% per year. Over the same period last year, the gross inflow of investments reached $218.2 million.
On the whole, in 2018, the inflow of investments from Germany amounted to $400.5 million, which is 2.4% more than in 2017 ($391.3 million).
