Kazakh '08 industrial output growth slows to 2.1 pct

ALMATY Jan 13 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan's industrial output growth slowed to 2.1 percent in 2008 from 4.5 percent in 2007, the State Statistics Agency said on Tuesday.

Kazakhstan has been hit hard by the global financial crisis after years of rapid growth that was partly financed by foreign borrowing.

The government said last week gross domestic product growth had slowed to "above three percent" in 2008 from 8.7 percent in the previous year. (Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; editing by Stephen Nisbet)