The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a multi-billion-yuan loan to Kazakhstan, but the decision was not unanimous. The U.S. voted against the loan. The board of directors approved a 3.4 billion yuan (about $500 million) loan to Kazakhstan to finance the second phase of the fiscal governance and financial…
Vyacheslav Kim, Kazakhstan’s richest businessman, co-owner of Kaspi.kz and the sole owner of Alatau City Bank, has registered a new holding company, United Group Alatau, at the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC). The registration may signal plans to restructure the ownership of Alatau City Bank, according to Arman Batayev, a…
Almost 5% of Kazakhstan’s population lived below the poverty line in the first quarter of 2026. The poverty rate increased by 0.4 percentage points from a year earlier, while the number of people living in poverty rose 10%. The Bureau of National Statistics has released data on Kazakhstanis whose incomes…
Solidcore Resources plc, a company mining gold in Kazakhstan, has agreed to establish a joint venture (JV) with Minerals Development Oman (MDO) for geological exploration and development of the Khabiyat copper-gold project in Oman, the mining company reported. The agreement allows Solidcore to gradually acquire a stake in the JV…
According to the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market (ARDFM), demand for cars in Kazakhstan has been largely satisfied. As of May 2026, the number of issued car loans fell by 37.3% compared to May 2025. In its May financial sector review, the agency reported that car…
The current tariffs for biogas power plants in Kazakhstan are discouraging investment and delaying the launch of new projects, according to Evgeny Churdalev, CIS sales director at Jenbacher & Waukesha Gas Engines. According to Churdalev, the maximum auction price for electricity generated by biogas power plants is 32.23 tenge ($0.068)…
Business activity in Kazakhstan’s services sector continued to strengthen in June, according to the Freedom Holding Corp. Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI). The services sector remained the most resilient part of Kazakhstan’s economy amid subdued conditions in manufacturing. Stronger activity and rising demand The final services PMI rose to 53.5 in…
Kazakhstan plans to establish a Data Center Valley, with Amazon and G42 already planning to participate. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced the initiative during a meeting of the Foreign Investors Council. The president said the Digital Code, the Law on Artificial Intelligence, adopted by Parliament, and the Digital Qazaqstan strategy create…
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev met with the President of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Muhammad Sulaiman Al Jasser, the Akorda press service reported. During the meeting, President Tokayev noted that, over the years of cooperation, the IsDB has become a reliable partner in supporting Kazakhstan’s national development priorities. According to…
Meat and poultry prices rose 17.6% over the past year, making them the largest contributor to food inflation in Kazakhstan. Lamb, beef, and ground meat also remained the biggest drivers of price increases among socially important food products. Read also: Soaring costs force Kazakhs to ditch meat and chocolate. Overall,…
Kazakhstan’s external debt continues to grow, increasing by nearly $1 billion in the first quarter of 2026. Debt continues to grow As of April 1, 2026, Kazakhstan’s external debt reached $182.8 billion, up $0.9 billion over the first quarter. According to official data, the increase was primarily driven by price…
At the end of the first half of 2026, production volumes in Kazakhstan’s manufacturing sector continued to decline amid a decrease in new orders. The Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) by Freedom Holding Corp. slipped to 48.5, marking a steady deterioration in business conditions for the sixth consecutive month. Production indicators…
The National Bank of Kazakhstan has granted the country’s first operating license to Astana-based cryptocurrency exchange service Pax Finance. The license allows the company to officially buy, sell and hold digital assets, as well as establish exchange offices and install crypto ATMs. The exchange service will operate under Kazakhstan legislation.…
Kazakhstan’s exports declined 3.2% year over year in 2025 to $79.0 billion, primarily because of unfavorable global market conditions. Exports of raw materials fell 4.5% to $50.7 billion, while shipments of processed goods proved more resilient, declining just 0.8% to $28.4 billion. As a result of greater export diversification and…
Conditions for doing business in Kazakhstan’s jewelry industry are more favorable than in neighboring Kyrgyzstan, according to Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Industry and Construction. The ministry said Kazakhstan offers a more comprehensive and flexible support system for jewelry manufacturers, with policies covering the entire production chain — from importing equipment and…
Kazakhstani banks earned a combined 239.8 billion tenge (approximately $510 million) in May 2026, the highest monthly profit since the beginning of the year. While the five most profitable lenders remained largely unchanged, state-owned Otbasy Bank unexpectedly climbed to third place, according to statistics from the National Bank of Kazakhstan.…
The introduction of new rules for importing goods from foreign online stores, which was due to take effect on July 1, 2026, has been delayed, Kazakhstan’s State Revenue Committee of the Ministry of Finance announced. The changes concern new customs regulations for e-commerce goods that will affect purchases from foreign…
Freedom Finansal Hizmetler A.Ş., a subsidiary of Freedom Holding Corp., has obtained approval from the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BRSA) and the Turkish Competition Authority. The regulators approved the acquisition of a 99.32% stake in the share capital of Turkish Bank A.Ş. New chapter for Freedom in Turkey Freedom…
The income of the wealthiest 10% of Kazakhstanis is 5.7 times higher than that of the poorest 10%, according to first-quarter 2026 data released by the Bureau of National Statistics. Read also: Forbes publisher explains why Nazarbayev’s relatives vanished from rich list. The bureau measured income inequality using the decile…
Masdar, a renewable energy company based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has officially kicked off construction of a 1-gigawatt wind farm in the Zhambyl region, Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Energy reported. The groundbreaking ceremony, which included the placement of a commemorative time capsule, was held via teleconference. In particular, Vice…
Nace.AI, a U.S.-based startup founded by Kazakhstanis Dos Bakytzhan (CEO and former head of GOAT.AI), Zhanibek Datbayev (CTO and former Meta AI engineer) and Abulhair Saparov (chief scientist and assistant professor of computer science at Purdue University), has attracted a major new investor — Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo!, an…
Freedom Holding Corp. has announced the appointment of Valeriy Kim as its chief financial officer (CFO). He previously served as vice president of finance at Freedom Holding Corp. and chief executive officer of Freedom Holding Operations LLP, a subsidiary of Freedom Holding Corp. Kim assumes the role from Evgeny Ler,…
Kazakhstan’s Senate has approved amendments that would allow citizens to transfer up to 100% of their pension savings to private asset management companies for trust management. Under current rules, contributors may transfer no more than 50% of their pension assets to private managers. The changes were announced by MP Askhat…
Members of former Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s family were removed from the Forbes Kazakhstan rich list when the publication could no longer verify information about their wealth using publicly available sources, according to Armanzhan Baitassov, entrepreneur and owner of the Forbes franchise in Kazakhstan and Georgia, who shared the insight…
