Price surge accelerates in Kazakhstan

In January, the inflation rate in Kazakhstan increased to 20.7% on a year-on-year basis. In December 2022, inflation grew by 20.3%. Last year, food prices grew by 25.7%, non-food product prices surged by 20.2%, and the price for paid services rose by 14.3%, according to the Bureau of National Statistics.

In January 2023, the monthly inflation was at 1.1%. Food product prices grew by 1.4%, non-food product prices by 0.9%, and paid services increased by 0.7%.

In terms of specific products, the January price surge was 22.4% for cucumbers, 16.7% for onions, and 8.8% for tomatoes. Among non-food products, the highest increases were for laundry detergents (3.9%) and bleaches (3.5%). In the paid services segment, notary services became 12.6% more expensive.

Last year, authorities reported an 88.5% price increase for soap, 71.4% for office supplies, 62.4% for onions, 60.9% for sugar, 55.6% for cucumbers, 46.4% for canned milk, 42.8% for flour and 42.3% for noodle products.

In January, Astana and Shymkent reported the highest food price increase (2.2%). On January 31, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev blamed the capital city authorities for doing nothing to prevent that price surge.

Even though Kazakhstan became a leader of the Eurasian Economic Union in terms of price surges, its other member states also reported increased food prices. In Belarus and Kyrgyzstan, prices surged by 16.5% and 16.4%, respectively. Armenia (12.5%) and Russia (14.9%) reported the lowest rate of increase. More generally, food product inflation in the EEU reached 15.4%.