TABLE-Kazakhstan's trade surplus rises to $5.7 bln

ALMATY, April 18 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan's foreign trade
surplus widened to $5.7 billion in January-February 2008 from
$2.2 billion in the same period of last year, the State
Statistics Agency said on Friday.

The agency said the Central Asian state's exports rose 62.0
percent in the first two months of the year, while imports grew
10.9 percent.

KAZAKH FOREIGN TRADE ($mln) Jan-Feb '08 Jan-Feb '07

Exports 10,289.8 6,353.1

Imports 4,602.3 4,151.7

Balance +5.687.5 +2,201.4

Countries of the former Soviet bloc accounted for 15.5
percent of Kazakh exports and 47.1 percent of imports in the
period.

Russia remained the main trading partner with 7.9 percent
of all Kazakh exports and 37.9 percent of imports.
(Editing by David Christian-Edwards)