Kazakhstan Lowers GDP Growth Forecast For 2012

Kazakhstan's Minister of Economic Development and Trade Bakhytzhan Sagintaev has said the country's GDP growth for this year would be less than originally forecast.

Sagintaev said that the government had originally said GDP growth in 2012 would be some 6.9 percent but the revised figure is now 6.0 percent.

Sagintaev said world economic developments and their effect on the price of oil led officials to lower the earlier prediction.

Kazakhstan has huge oil reserves that have helped propel the country's economy forward in the last decade.

In late 2011, unrest in western Kazakhstan between striking oil workers and law enforcement officers left 17 people dead.

Compiled from agency reports