Kazakhstan reports increase in deposits amid unchanged base rate

According to the latest report from Kazakhstan’s National Bank, the deposit volume increased by 2% in April, reaching 41.3 trillion tenge (approximately $81 billion) in the country. The upward trend was observed in deposits denominated in both national and foreign currencies.

Despite the base rate remaining unchanged in April at 16.5%, following a 1.25 percentage point (p.p.) increase in March, the deposit volume rose by 833 billion tenge (approximately $1.6 billion) to 41.3 trillion tenge (around $81 billion) over the month, setting a new record in nominal terms (inflation excluded). The previous record was set in December 2024.

Deposits denominated in tenge rose by 2.5% month-on-month to 31.9 trillion tenge ($62.6 billion), marking the highest level since the beginning of the year and only slightly below the December figure of 32 trillion tenge ($62.8 billion). Foreign-currency-denominated deposits increased by 1% to 9.4 trillion tenge ($18.4 billion).

Out of the cumulative deposit amount, 55.3%, or 22.8 trillion tenge ($44.7 billion), is held in the accounts of physical entities, while the remaining 44.7%, or 18.5 trillion tenge ($36.3 billion), belongs to legal entities. The deposit volume also increased against the backdrop of a gain in the country’s money supply over the month — up by 971 billion tenge ($1.9 billion) to 45.7 trillion tenge ($89.7 billion) in April.

Notably, banks are not rushing to raise deposit rates, although the base rate was raised in March. At the end of that month, the average deposit rate for legal entities stood at 15% for deposits denominated in tenge, marking a 0.8 p.p. increase over the month, while the average rate for physical entities increased by 0.3 percentage points to 13.6%.