Kazakhstan plans to cut state expenditure for 2009 by over 10% as a result of the global financial crisis, Prime Minister Karim Masimov said Monday.
The Central Asian state had adopted a three-year budgetary planning system in 2008, which allocated 3.42 trillion tenge ($22.9 billion) for the current fiscal year.
Masimov said the budget figures, agreed before the financial crisis hit, were no longer feasible.
"Right now we can't be burning money, and because of that we must once again take a look at the total for these nine months and, possibly, address it in parliament," Masimov told a meeting of the ruling Nur Otan party. "As a whole we plan to cut expenses by KZT40 billion.
Kazakhstan, an energy-rich ex-Soviet state bordering China and Russia, has been especially hard hit by the financial crisis. The dual impact of plummeting commodity prices and the credit crunch, which roughed up Kazakhstan's heavily exposed banking sector, has complicated recovery efforts by the region's largest economy.
In November, Kazakhstan agreed a $10 billion crisis plan aimed at protecting its economy from the global economic slowdown, a move it followed with a $4 billion stimulus package in March.
Fueled by soaring energy prices, the Kazakh economy had enjoyed growth rates of up to 10% prior to the crisis.