Kazakhstan H1 industrial production growth stalls

ALMATY, July 11 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan's industrial production growth stalled in the first half of this year to 3.8 percent compared with 6.8 percent in the same period of 2007, the state statistics agency said on Friday.

Central Asia's biggest economy has shown signs of weakness since mid-2007 when global liquidity problems started to bite into its long-booming banking sector, sparking concerns that credit woes could spill over into the country's wider economy.

The statistics agency said in a statement that production fell in industrial regions such as Karaganda, Kyzyl-Orda and Almaty. Kazakhstan is a big producer of copper, oil and uranium.

However, overall mining output grew 6.7 percent in the first half of the year from the same period a year earlier, while oil production expanded by 7.8 percent in the period. Production mainly shrank in the processing industry, the agency said.

A global liquidity squeeze has limited funding for many Kazakh banks and companies, and crippled the once-booming construction sector of Central Asia's top economy.

(Writing by Maria Golovnina, Editing by Jacqueline Wong)