Kyrgyzstan's growth expected to moderately rise in 2019 - IMF

AKIPRESS.COM - Growth is expected to moderately rise in 2019 owing to gold production and fiscal expansion and reach about four percent in the medium term, IMF said upon conclusion of 2019 Article IV Consultation with the Kyrgyz Republic.
However, risks are tilted to the downside mainly because of the impact of trade tensions on the regional economic environment.
The economy has experienced moderate growth of 3.5 percent in 2018, benefiting from a benign regional environment. Core inflation has declined, and lower food prices have pushed headline inflation to 1.5 percent on average. The current account deficit of the balance of payments weakened to 8.7 percent of GDP while gross official foreign exchange reserves declined to the still adequate level equivalent to four months of imports of goods and services.
The general government deficit measured according to the IMF Government Finance Statistics Manual declined to 1.3 percent of GDP in 2018, mainly owing to lower-than-budgeted spending on investment and goods and services. While the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic (NBKR) loosened monetary policy, it made further progress in reducing excess liquidity and dollarization. The soundness of the banking sector improved, but the NBKR took the unusual step of acquiring a problem bank, IMF said.