ASTANA: Central Asia's largest economy, on Wednesday raised its 2011 industrial output growth forecast to 4.8 percent from a previous estimate of 3.6 percent, due to projected growth in mining and processing.
"Industrial output growth will be driven by an estimated 3.5 percent growth in the mining sector and by a forecast 7.3 percent rise in the processing industry," Economy Minister Zhanar Aitzhanova told a government meeting.
She also revised the ministry's forecast for 2011 gross domestic product (GDP) growth to 5 percent, the upper end of a previous estimate of between 4 percent and 5 percent.
Kazakhstan, which has attracted around $150 billion in foreign investment since independence in 1991, is the world's largest uranium producer and a major producer of oil and industrial metals.
Aitzhanova confirmed an earlier forecast for oil production of 81 million tonnes this year and said Kazakhstan expected the average world oil price to fluctuate at around $65 per barrel in 2011 (Reporting by Raushan Nurshayeva; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov)
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