Thanks to a sharp increase in gold mining indicators, the economy of Kyrgyzstan made a breakthrough by the end of the year. The country’s GDP is growing for the third month in a row. But there is also bad news — prices are also rising.
Government’s forecast comes true
There is still almost 15 days of the year ahead, and the government’s forecasts for economic growth have already came true. In November, the republic’s GDP reached 474,529.7 billion soms. Compared with 2017, the figure increased by 3.1 percent.
According to the National Statistical Committee, GDP growth was mainly provided by agriculture, industry, construction and services sectors.
At the same time, the growth of the commodity production branches compared with 2017 amounted to 4.7 percent, branches providing services — 1.7 percent.
Compared to January-November 2017, the share of industries producing goods in the structure of GDP increased by 0.4 percent (to 40.1 percent), while the share of branches providing services decreased by 1.8 percent (to 44.7 percent).
Compared with October, the country’s GDP grew by 54,517.3 billion soms.
Without the enterprises for development of Kumtor mine, the state of affairs is even more optimistic. In the first 11 months of 2018, GDP growth made up 3.2 percent.
Thanks to gold
The increase in gold production has most of all influenced the state of affairs in industry. According to the results of 11 months of 2018, Kyrgyzstan produced industrial products for 221,080.2 billion soms. This is 4.9 percent more than in 2017.
Compared with October, the figure increased by 30,635.6 billion soms with a growth of 3.5 percent.
Mining of minerals increased by 7.8 percent, and production of precious metals — by 2.2 percent.
Without enterprises for the development of Kumtor mine, production reached 133,359 billion soms and grew by 8.4 percent. Compared with October, the growth is significant — by 7.2 percent.
Pre-New Year price hike
If prices did not grow in Kyrgyzstan for most of the year, then the situation changed in November. The rise in consumer prices and tariffs in the republic as a whole compared to October reached 0.7 percent.
Food and non-alcoholic beverages rose in price by 1 percent, non-food products — by 0.8 percent, alcoholic beverages and tobacco products — by 0.5 percent.
At the same time, there was a slight (by 0.1 percent) decrease in tariffs for services rendered to the population.
An increase in consumer prices and tariffs in November compared with October was observed throughout the country. Most of all (by 1.3 percent) they rose in Jalal-Abad region.
Increase in consumer prices and tariffs in November was recorded in Naryn (by 2.6 percent), Osh (by 1.7 percent), Issyk-Kul (by 0.9 percent) and Jalal-Abad (by 0.4 percent) regions as well as in Osh city (by 0.3 percent).
Since the beginning of 2018, the general decline in prices for non-food products has been recorded in Jalal-Abad (by 0.4 percent) and Talas (by 0.7 percent) regions.
Salaries in hotels and restaurants decrease
According to the National Statistical Committee, the average salary in Kyrgyzstan is 15,778 soms. Compared to last year, it grew by 6.1 percent.
Growth of an average monthly salary was observed at enterprises and organizations engaged in all types of economic activity with the exception of hotels and restaurants.
