Kazakh Industrial-Output Growth Unexpectedly Slowed in April

Kazakhstan’s industrial output unexpectedly slowed last month as oil production shrank.

Output at factories, mines and utilities rose 2 percent in April from a year earlier after growing 3.1 percent in March, the state statistics agency said on its website today. The median estimate of five economists in a Bloomberg News survey was 3.7 percent.

Industrial production advanced 2.7 percent in the first four months of 2012 on an annual basis, the agency said. Oil output fell 1.4 percent to 26.6 million metric tons and production of copper dropped 2.1 percent to 107,600 tons.

Rolled-steel output climbed 2.4 percent to 1.1 million tons in the January to April period, while ferroalloys gained 0.2 percent to 600,000 tons, according to the agency.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nariman Gizitdinov in Almaty at ngizitdinov@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net