ASTANA, August 15 (RIA Novosti) - Kazakhstan's economy is continuing to develop rapidly with gross domestic product growth coming in just shy of 10% in the first six months of 2006, the prime minister said Tuesday.
The Central Asian country has enjoyed six straight years of impressive growth largely on the back of considerable oil reserves.
"The GDP growth rate in the first half of the year totaled 9.3%, which gives us cause to be optimistic," Danial Akhmetov said.
He added that within the first seven months of 2006 industrial growth hit 5.9%. Growth in mining industry in the second quarter of 2006 amounted to 26.8% against the first quarter, Akhmetov said.
In June, President Nursultan Nazarbayev said the country should double its gross domestic product by 2008 in comparison with the 2000 figure.
