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Today, on October 26, the National Bank of Kazakhstan increased the base rate from 14.5% to 16% with a percentage corridor of +/- 1.0 p.p. The new standing lending facility rate is 17%, while the standing facility rate for liquidity withdrawal is 15%, according to the regulator’s press service.

According to the National Bank, the move is a result of growing inflationary pressure on Kazakhstan’s economy. The regulator also pointed out that even though it has corrected the rate’s trajectory, its overall direction and tempo remain the same.

In September, the inflation rate was higher than projected

The...

Right before the launch of a new strategy designed to transform Kazakhstan’s economy to its low-carbon version by 2060, the government is considering the idea of constructing a new coal-fired power station in Ekibastuz.

The project of Ekibastuz Regional Power Station (GRES) No.3 was announced by Almasadam Satkaliyev, head of the National Welfare Fund Samruk-Kazyna during the cabinet session on the development of the electric power industry. The fund is the only shareholder of Samruk-Energy, the largest electric power company in Kazakhstan and producer of 35% of all electricity in the country.

Samruk-Energy already runs two big coal-fired power stations...

Halyk Bank stocks at the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) dropped 8.62% to $0.25, which is slightly better than the 9% plunge earlier.

The reason the bank’s stocks have been caught under pressure is the shareholder meeting today. The financial entity hasn’t yet announced the results of the meeting.

As of 12:25 Astana time, there were 349 transactions with 744,100 shares of Halyk Bank ($232,000), according to KASE.

The only message the bank made so far was the announcement of a shareholder meeting scheduled for today October 21. The key topic on the meeting’s agenda is dividend payouts: should the bank...

LG, a home appliance giant from South Korea is about to close its manufacturing site in the Moscow region. The company is thinking about moving its business to Uzbekistan or Kazakhstan, according to the Russian business newspaper Kommersant.

The Korean company has already negotiated with Artel, an Uzbek company that closely cooperates with another South Korean tech giant Samsung. LG used to run its plant in Kazakhstan but closed it several years ago.

As Artel told the Kommersant edition, there are no joint projects between Artel and LG. The company has also refused to comment on possible negotiations with Koreans...

Brussels fully supports Uzbekistan in its endeavor to implement massive economic reforms, according to Terhi Hakala, special representative for Central Asia. She made this statement during the meeting with President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.               

«As the special representative highlighted, the E.U. values and supports the continuation of irreversible reforms in the New Uzbekistan, which are aimed at further democratization and social and economic transformation of the country,» the press service of the Uzbek president reported.

Over the first nine months of the year, the turnover between Uzbekistan and the E.U. increased by 15%. At the same time, Uzbekistan has increased its exports...

This week, ten commercial banks in Kyrgyzstan have stopped giving service to Russia’s Mir payment cards, according to Interfax news agency.

Among those banks alleging technical reasons for the move are Aiyl Bank and Kyrgyz-Swiss Bank. On the other hand, Bank Kyrgyzstan and Halyk Bank Kyrgyzstan (a subsidiary of the Halyk Bank Kazakhstan) have justified their move with geopolitical tensions.

DemirBank, Eurasian Savings Bank, Kompanion Bank, Bakai Bank, DosCredoBank and Bank of Asia also don’t accept Mir cards, the agency said.

According to the Russian news agency RBC, Finka Bank also stopped working with the Russian payment system Mir. However...

Galymzhan Pirmatov, head of the National Bank of Kazakhstan, believes that as long as the country’s citizens continue to expect price surge the pressure on the inflation rate in Kazakhstan will continue.

The official made this statement on October 19 during a Q&A session with members of the parliament. He also said that the government is forecasting 7.5-9.5% inflation next year, 4-5% in 2024 and 3-4% in 2025-2027. In September 2022, the inflation rate reached 17.7%, according to the Bureau of National Statistics.

«Concerning inflationary pressure. High inflationary expectations are going to affect the inflation rate. The National Bank will...

Kazakhstan is going to increase the influx of foreign direct investments from $23.7 (2021) to $25 billion this year, according to Almas Aydarov, deputy head of the foreign minister. He also noted that the country is doing quite well in terms of getting new foreign investments despite the current geopolitical situation. «Over the first six months of the year, we attracted 14.2 billion, which is 28% growth over the same period last year,» he said.

Among key foreign investors to Kazakhstan are European countries, South Korea, Japan, China and Russia. These countries account for 90% of all foreign direct investments...

Tariffs for natural gas, electricity and logistic services must be increased to fair market levels in the next 3-5 years, according to Ernat Berdikulov, executing director of the National Welfare Fund Samruk-Kazyna and the person responsible for developing strategy and asset management. He made his statement on October 17 during a meeting of the fund’s public council, where he presented a new strategy for 2023-2032.

According to Berdikulov, Samruk-Kazyna is interested in increasing the value of its assets. In order to achieve this goal, it is going to improve its financial performance and update the fund from a technological point...

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on Kazakhstan not to extradite four Karakalpak activists to Uzbekistan where they’ll likely face politically motivated prosecution and even torture, according to the human rights watchdog.

«After the brutal crackdown on protests in Karakalpakstan in July, the authorities in Uzbekistan continue to persecute activists representing the Karakalpak ethnic minority,» said Mihra Rittmann, Central Asia researcher for HRW.

If Kazakhstan decides to do so, it would mean the county is violating international law, she pointed out.

«That’s why Kazakhstan authorities must drop the idea of extradition and set those activists free,» Rittmann highlighted.

Over the...

The International Monetary Fund has changed its forecast for Uzbekistan’s GDP growth this year, according to the World Economic Outlook published in October 2022.  

This year the country’s economy is expected to increase by 5.2%, not 3.4% as projected by the fund in April. However, the IMF is not so optimistic when it comes to next year. The fund believes that Uzbekistan’s GDP will grow just by 4.7% while the earlier outlook was 5%. 

The IMF has also changed its forecast for inflation. In 2022, the price surge is expected at 11.2% instead of 11.8% while in 2023 the rate...

As the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Kazakhstan reported, there are 12 candidates who are going to take part in the snap presidential elections in November.

October 11 was the last day for those who wanted to register as a candidate for the country’s president. This stage lasted 19 days from September 23 to October 11.

According to Erman Mukhtar, the secretary of the CEC, there are 12 candidates including Meiram Kazhyken from the Union of Trade Unions of Kazakhstan, Zhiguli Dayrabayev (Auyl Party), Nurlan Auesbaev (Nationwide Social Democratic Party), Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, a candidate from several civil associations, Nurzhan Altayev

Over the first eight months of 2022, ice cream production decreased by 7% in Kazakhstan. However, in July-August, Kazakhstani ice cream producers were able to increase their output (11,945 tons) over the same period last year (10,690). This allowed them to partially mitigate shocks in the first half of the year when the production plunged by 17%.

Several factors might explain this decrease. First of all, in January there were logistical problems at the border with China. Then ice cream producers lost another large supplier of ingredients – Russia. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the vast majority of foreign...

Jusan Bank denies any affiliation with the family of Ex-President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

According to the bank’s press service, many Kazakhstani media outlets and social media have reported that Nazarbayev allegedly controls the bank and its parent company Jusan Technology Limited in London.

«Neither Nazarbaev nor any member of his family is linked to Jusan Bank, its subsidiaries or its parent company. They are not shareholders and have zero control over the bank and JTL,» the bank said.

Jusan Bank highlights that its ultimate goal is to facilitate education in Kazakhstan and it is ready to take any measure needed to...

First Heartland Securities (FHS), the majority shareholder in Jusan Bank, is going to recommend its subsidiary make dividend payouts for 2021 at $2.21 per share. This decision was made during the extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of the FHS shareholders on October 6.

Now, Jusan Bank is expected to hold its EGM on October 24. The bank is going to discuss the dividend payout issue. According to FHS, the bank is going to use its net profit obtained during the last few years to make dividend payouts. The company highlighted that payouts to Galimzhan Yessenov, a minority shareholder of the bank...

According to Tamara Duysenova, minister of labor and social protection of the population in Kazakhstan, more than 70% of officially employed Russians work in the service sector.

Another group of Russians is employees in the industrial sector (16%), construction companies (9%) and agriculture (2%). In general, there are five of the most popular professions among those who have come to Kazakhstan from Russia: accountants, client managers, sales managers, logistic specialists and drivers.

The government wants foreign workers to pay their retirement contributions.

«So far, we have 22,500 Russians officially working in Kazakhstan and paying their retirement contributions. About 8,000 of...

In September and October, international development institutions in Central Asia changed their outlook toward economic growth in Kazakhstan to a more positive one. Among these institutions are the World Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Eurasian Development Bank (EDB), Asian Development Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In early October, the World Bank published its regular report on Europe and Central Asia where it assumed that Kazakhstan’s GDP growth is going to slow down to 3% this year, not 2% as previously predicted (the rate was 4.1% in 2021). There are several reasons for this decrease including a...

Unbreakable Brotherhood 2022, a command and staff exercise program scheduled for October 10-14 in Balykchy, Kyrgyzstan has been canceled, according to the country’s Ministry of Defense. So far, the agency has not explained the move.

The drills were announced this summer. It was expected that all the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member states, including Tajikistan, would take part in the event

However, after the military сlashes on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border, members of Zhogorku Kenesh, Kyrgyzstan’s national parliament as well as residents of the border area demanded the Kyrgyz government ban Tajik military personnel from taking part in the military...

The first supermarket under the SPAR name opened in Almaty. The international company that runs a network of supermarkets in various countries is partnering with the local company SKIF TRADE (owner of the Small and Skif brands). The new site in Almaty is Eurospar, a type of supermarket for family shopping with 1,000 to 3,000 square meters of floor space. The new shop in Almaty is 2,400 square meters.

There are four types of SPAR supermarkets: Spar, Eurospar, Interspar and Spar Express. Spar is the most popular type of supermarket with 300 to 1,000 square meters of floor space. These...

Kazakhstan’s political parties have united into the people’s coalition to support the candidacy of Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the acting president of the country.

«Today we have made a strategic choice and now we shall unite behind Kassym-Jomart Tokayev as we all pursue the same goal. Of course, many other political parties also propose Tokayev as a candidate. That is why we have united with these parties and agreed to establish the people’s coalition in support of Tokayev,» said Erlan Koshanov, head of the Amanat political party during the 24th urgent congress of the party.

Today, on October 6, President Tokayev must...

Petr Vrublevskiy, Ambassador of Ukraine to Kazakhstan, is no longer welcomed after a scandal with his provocative interview, according to Aybek Smadiyarov, official spokesperson of Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry.

Currently, the agency is considering a new candidate for the position that Ukraine has already proposed.

«I’d like to note that we and our Ukrainian counterparts have a similar understanding of this issue. The current ambassador now is no longer welcomed in Kazakhstan and no other meetings or discussions are planned,» Smadiyarov said.

He also commented on the statement by Maria Zakharova, the official spokeswoman of the Russian MFA, who said that...

The old era of oligarchic capitalism in Kazakhstan is dead, long live the new era of social responsibility, according to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. During his official visit to the Karaganda region, he talked about these changes in the country’s approach toward businesses operating within its territory.

He also noted that the government is keeping an eye on all large commodity companies operating in the country as people want big businesses in Kazakhstan to be highly efficient and socially responsible.

«We are going to do everything needed to prevent capital from being illegally withdrawn from our country. We are also keeping...

There were no big changes in the labor market in the third quarter in Kazakhstan. However, the number of vacancies over the period from July to September decreased by 2.5% (351,000) compared to the same period last year. The Kursiv edition decided to learn what this statistical data means.

According to Enbek.kz, among industries with few vacancies are the trade and warehouse industry (negative 32%), transportation and logistics (-13%), and the food and hospitality industry (-17%). Also, there were fewer vacancies in the sphere of marketing and media. The number of vacant jobs in this sector dropped from 15,900 to...

On October 3, the Uzbek Republican Currency Exchange (UZCE) presented the launch of trading with US dollar futures linked to the national currency (Uzbek som). 

«We spent two years on the development of the new tool. It was ready by this June and until recently we had tested the tool in conjunction with 13 commercial banks. Later, we are going to launch similar futures linked to other foreign currencies,» said Sirojiddin Baymetov, a senior broker in the UZCE.

He also noted that the presentation of the tool is symbolic because there were no such hedging products in Uzbekistan before. With...