News

According to data from the National Bank, Kazakhstan’s international reserves grew by 1.8% to $96.3 billion in April 2023. In March, this rate was 2.9%. Since the beginning of the year, the growth has been about 6%.

This growth was driven by a 3.8% increase in gross international reserves on a month-on-month (m/m) basis. The National Fund also reported an increase in its assets to $58.7 billion (+0.5%) in April.

However, the regulator’s assets now include less gold, as the metal’s share in the National Bank’s reserves declined by 3.7% m/m to $20.3 billion. On the other hand, assets nominated...

Polymetal, the biggest Russian producer of silver and gold, is going to redomiciliate its business in Kazakhstan. The move has recently been approved by 92% of shareholders of the company after nine months of discussions, according to the Qazaqstan Association of Minority Shareholders’ channel on Telegram.

As of today, the company is still registered with Jersey Island.

The first reports about the possible redomiciliation of Polymetal to the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC) appeared last fall. At the time, the company also reported that it postponed the Pacific Hydrometallurgical Plant project in the Khabarovsk Krai, Russia.

Later, Vitaly Nesis, CEO...

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is responsible for attracting foreign investments, has invited 401 international companies to relocate their business from Russia to Kazakhstan. All these companies previously announced their intention to leave Russia, according to Almas Aydarov, deputy foreign minister of Kazakhstan. While speaking to the members of the Senate, he reported that 67 companies agreed to relocate and 25 businesses have already done so.

The MFA never mentioned China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) and Clariant, the Swiss producer of chemical products, as companies that plan to relocate their offices to Kazakhstan. However, both companies have done so...

According to Peter Foster, president and CEO of the Air Astana airline, the company is planning to obtain three long-rage Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft over 2025-2026.

«Currently, we have 43 aircraft with an average age of 4.3 years. We are expecting seven additional aircraft by the end of this year. Moreover, our fleet is expected to be expanded to 64 aircraft including three long-range Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft. Two of them will be delivered in 2025 and one in 2026,» Foster said.

He also reported that Air Astana and its subsidiary FlyArystan operate more than...

Kazakhstan is going to increase its stake in the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) by 12.71% up to 50%, according to Minister of Finance Yerulan Zhamaubayev.

In January 2023, Kazakhstan acquired a 4.29% stake in EDB from Russia for about $44.9 million. As a result, Kazakhstan’s stake has increased from 33% to 37.2%. At the time Zhamaubayev said that the exact sum of the deal would be available once the 2024 budget is done. He also noted that the government would pay in installments of five million a year to reduce the burden on the state budget.

Shigeo Katsu is going to resign from the office of the president of Nazarbayev University (NU) on June 15. Ilesanmi Adesida will be the acting president of the NU after that.

«After 13 years of service, President Katsu announced his resignation from the office. The university deeply appreciates President Katsu for his visionary and effective management, which have helped NU to become the first Kazakhstani university to meet high international standards,» NU said in a statement.

Katsu is a member of the board of regents for NU, Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools and Nazarbayev Foundation. Once the...

Kazakhstan and the U.K. are going to increase flight connectivity between the two countries. Authorized agencies of the two countries are the Civil Aviation Committee (CAC) under the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructural Development of Kazakhstan and the British Department for Transport. They have already negotiated the issue.

«The flight frequency between Almaty and Astana on the one hand and any destination in the U.K. on the other hand will be increased to seven flights a week. The cargo traffic also will be expanded to seven flights a week on an irregular basis, including the fifth...

Kazakhstan has no intention and doesn’t plan to create or join any union states, according to Ruslan Zheldibay, the official spokesperson for the president of Kazakhstan.

«As you probably know President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev took part in the second Eurasian Economic Summit in Moscow recently. During the meeting, the president made some statements that sparked a lot of discussion among the expert community. In this regard, I’d like to note that the key message by the president was the following: the process of integration within the EEU can and should follow only the economic path. If someone...

Authorities in Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to recognize the territorial integrity of each other. This statement was made during the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in Moscow on May 25.

«We have reached an agreement and I think it’s safe to say that we are on our way to the settlement of our relations,» Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said.

In turn, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev also confirmed that his country has no territorial claims to Armenia.

«Given that Armenia has recognized Karabakh as a part of Azerbaijan we...

On May 26, the National Bank of Kazakhstan revised its inflation forecast upwards.

«Taking into account the expected price increase for utilities and fuel as well as high fiscal stimulus, a factor that was never taken into account before, we have revised our forecast,» the regulator said in a statement.

According to the updated forecast by the National Bank, the annual inflation is going to reach 11% to 14% in 2023, 9% to 11% in 2024 and 5.5% to 7.5% in 2025. The regulator’s target is 4% to 5%.

The National Bank assesses the indirect...

The Almaty police department has opened a criminal case against an unidentified taxi driver from Almaty who ripped off two foreigners for $800. Now, he is accused of extortion.

According to the police, on May 21, 2023, the taxi driver who worked in the Almaty airport, offered his service to two Indian nationals. Initially, he promised to give them a ride for $2.25 but when they reached their destination, he demanded that the foreigners pay him about $1,100. Eventually, they negotiated a «discount» and paid $800.

«Police officers detained a 27-year-old male who is currently accused of extortion,» the police...

The board of directors of the Russian gas giant Gazprom has recommended the shareholders’ general meeting to refrain from making dividend payouts for the second half of 2022.

«The board of directors has recommended the general meeting of shareholders to not announce and distribute dividends for 2022 as the company spent about $14.9 billion for dividend payouts in the first half of last year (the record high amount of dividends for both Gazprom and the Russian stock market),» Gazprom said in a statement.

The general meeting of shareholders is going to be held remotely when...

According to Magerram Magerramov, a member of the country’s parliament, the government wants to create a new agency that will be responsible for the management of recovered public assets that were illegally withdrawn from Kazakhstan.

Magerramov also noted that this new authorized agency will be established within the Office of the Prosecutor General. The board will be responsible for reclaiming illegally withdrawn assets. The parliament has already started working on a new draft law that is going to regulate the process of recovering public assets illegally withdrawn from the country.

«Moreover, the government plans to establish...

The Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market (ARDFM) of Kazakhstan reviewed macroeconomic data for the first quarter of 2023 and assessed how these factors may affect the country’s GDP in the middle-term and long run.

According to the regulator, the macroeconomic situation slightly deteriorated over the period from January to March 2023 compared to the last quarter of 2022. External demand and debt load were the most affected macroeconomic markers.

«There were a lot of concerns in the first quarter of 2023 related to the threat of global recession due to problems in...

Kazakhstani Minister of Finance Yerulan Zhamaubayev said that Kazakhstan does not sell drones and chips to Russia. However, he’s promised to check the information about such supplies published by several media outlets.

Zhamaubayev noted that Kazakhstani officials are taking every measure they can to ensure the country doesn’t breach international sanctions imposed on Russia. For instance, the agency is even going to introduce an additional system of risk management to avoid such situations.

«Our primary goal is to put an effective barrier for sanctioned goods. We are going to take all necessary measures whenever we detect...

Polymetal, the biggest producer of silver and gold in Russia, is going to register its business in Kazakhstan. The company said that its Kazakhstani subsidiaries are independent of its business in Russia which has been targeted by U.S. sanctions.

«Our assets in Kazakhstan have been fully independent of Russian assets for a long time and operate in parallel. This is a part of the Polymetal redomiciliation project in Kazakhstan. The next step will be possible asset division based on nationality,» Polymetal said in a statement, citing Vitaly Nesis, head of the company.

Bakyrchik Mining Company...

Law enforcement officials of the West Kazakhstan region are investigating two financial pyramids called Life is Good and Hermes Finance. A female suspect who run both pyramid schemes in Kazakhstan was detained and will stay in custody for two months.

«Kazakhstanis voluntarily gave more than $270,000 in total to the perpetrator,» the Financial Monitoring Agency (FMA) said in a statement.

According to the agency, the Ponzi scheme organizer promised people yields of 24% to 54%.

In 2021, the Russian Federal Foundation for the Protection of Investors and Shareholders Rights acknowledged that both Hermes Finance and...

Over the first three months of 2023, the turnover of commodities between Kazakhstan and the European Union (EU) reached $10.2 billion, a 12.5% increase over the same period last year ($9.1 billion), the Ministry of Trade and Integration of Kazakhstan reported.

«The EU is the biggest trading partner for Kazakhstan, which accounts for 30% of our external trade. This mutual trade is quite dynamic as the amount of trade has been constantly growing,» the agency said in a statement.

The ministry also noted that the Kazakhstani machine-building industry, the iron and steel industry, the food...

The top-ranked female tennis player from Kazakhstan Elena Rybakina won the 2023 Italian Open in Rome and earned €521,754 as a prize. She also obtained 1,000 ranking points, according to Championat.com.

In the deciding match of the tournament, Rybakina played against Anhelina Kalinina from Ukraine.

The Kazakhstani female player won the first set with a score of 6:4. In the second set, the Ukrainian sportswoman refused to continue playing because of a knee injury and admitted the defeat.

This match lasted for one hour and eight minutes. During this time Rybakina made three aces, one double fault and also realized...

Kyrgyzstan is going to close its eyes on revenues obtained from undisclosed sources.

Kyrgyzstan is preparing for capital amnesty, the fourth such amnesty in the country’s history. Kyrgyz parliament has already approved a law on voluntary legalization and amnesty of assets of individuals. Once the law is signed by President Sadyr Japarov, many of those who have reasons to hide their capital will be able to regularize all assets they obtained before January 1, 2022.

Well-meaning intentions

According to lawmakers who initiated the law, the key goal of the document is to attract more investments in the Kyrgyzstani economy...

Military Prosecutor’s Office has opened a criminal case to investigate how Serik Kudebayev, a former police general in Kazakhstan, entered the country, the 24.kg online resource reported, citing undisclosed law enforcement officials in Bishkek.

«There are four suspects. All of them have been detained by the police. They’re in custody now in Bishkek. According to preliminary information, one of the detainees is a military serviceperson and three others are civilians,» the media outlet said.

In January 2023, Kazakhstani officials started court hearings against Kudebayev. He was accused of torture and abuse of power during the...

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has excluded Anatoly Karachinskiy, a co-founder of IBS Group from the sanctioned list.

According to the Meduza media outlet, this is the first time that the U.S. has lifted sanctions on a Russian businessman since the war in Ukraine began. However, the Department of the Treasury hasn’t revealed any reasons behind this decision.

In 2021, Karachinsky was ranked by Forbes as 149th richest person in Russia with a fortune of $800 million.

The U.S. government put the businessman on the sanctioned list in April 2022 due to Karachinsky’s...

Kazakhstan and China are going to expand bilateral trade and other economic relations. According to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the amount of Kazakhstani-Chinese trade has reached $31 billion. He made this statement during the Central Asia – China summit.

«President Xi and I have agreed to expand our trade to $40 billion. Trade with China has been rapidly growing across the entire region. Last year, this rate reached $70 billion, with Kazakhstan accounting for 45% of it,» the president noted.

Tokayev believes that the turnover between Central Asia and China can reach $100 billion bar by...

Last year, Kazakhstan attracted $12.5 billion in direct foreign investments from the European Union (EU), which is a quarter more than in 2021. This is a record high over the past ten years, Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov stated.

«We are interested in applying every option in order to expand our potential for further investment cooperation,» Smailov said during the EU-Central Asia economic summit in Almaty.

On May 19, Kazakhstan and the EU signed an agreement that implies the implementation of a range of projects for nine million euros in total. The EU is the biggest...