ASTANA, December 21. /TASS/. Kazakhstan’s government has an action plan in case oil prices drop below 40 U.S. dollars per barrel, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarebayev said on Sunday.
“I want to reassure Kazakhstan’s people that we have a plan for any situation - both when oil prices are up at 70 U.S. dollars per barrel, when they are 60 U.S. dollars, 50 U.S. dollars and even 40 U.S. dollars,” he said in an interview with Kazakhstan’s television channels. “We have reserves for such “rainy day.” These reserves will be enough to keep the living standards.”
He once again reassured that the government would fulfill all of its social liabilities. “I have already said that social liabilities of the state will not be cut in any event,” the president stressed.
He expressed the hope the current economic crisis would be over in a couple of years. “You know, a crisis may go on sluggishly for ten to twenty years,” he said. “But this is not the way with a profound crisis. Thus, such crisis broke out in 2007 but we were emerging from it be late 2010. So, now, it started in later 2014, so, by later 2015 or 2016 is will be over. Such crises are typically followed by an economic recovery, with growing demand and growing energy prices.”.