Analysts at the Association of Financiers of Kazakhstan (AFK) have significantly raised their one-year forecast for the dollar to 573 tenge, up from 548.5 in the previous outlook — a deterioration of 24.5 tenge for the local currency, according to an AFK statement. They have also slightly downgraded their forecast…
Kazakhstan’s net international reserves, which include gold and foreign exchange assets, rose in July for the first time in two months, increasing 1.45% from the previous month to $50.3 billion, according to data from the National Bank. Reserves are up 15.54% since the start of the year. Gross international reserves…
Kazakhstan is turning to cutting-edge technology to tackle inflation, deploying a powerful supercomputer to analyze price data and monitor commodity flows across the country in real time. Ablaikhan Ospanov, acting chairman of Kazakhtelecom, the national telecommunications operator, announced at a recent government meeting that the company’s supercomputer will be used…
KMG PetroChem, a subsidiary of Kazakhstan’s national oil and gas company KazMunayGas (KMG), has signed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with Tecnimont S.p.A. of Italy and Consolidated Contractors International Company (CCIC) of Lebanon for the construction of a gas separation facility (GSF) at the Tengiz field, KMG announced.…
KMF, Kazakhstan’s largest microfinance organization (MFO), has reregistered as a bank and changed its name to KMF Bank, according to a statement published on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) website. The company received a re-registration certificate on Aug. 1, 2025. From July 30 to Aug. 3, the MFO suspended all…
Kazakh investors can now buy shares in major American companies such as Amazon and Google for as little as $1, thanks to a new feature rolled out in the Tabys app by the Astana International Exchange (AIX), according to the Kazakhstan Association of Minority Shareholders (QAMS). The Tabys app, in…
ForteBank has postponed its extraordinary general meeting of shareholders from Aug. 14 to Oct. 29. The key issue to discuss will be the bank’s reorganization in the form of Home Credit Bank’s (HCB) accession to ForteBank. The meeting’s agenda remains unchanged. Shareholders are to approve amendments to the methodology for…
Central banks around the world purchased 22 tons of gold in June, according to the latest data from the World Gold Council (WGC). The majority of those purchases, more than 70%, were made by Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Uzbekistan added 9 tons to its gold reserves, marking a sharp shift after…
An administrative court in Astana has overturned a $4.2 billion environmental fine imposed on the North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC), the operator of the Kashagan oil field, citing procedural violations by the regional environmental authority. The court emphasized that its decision to nullify the order issued by the Atyrau Regional…
A corporate conflict is intensifying in Kazakhstan over control of the Eurasian Financial Company (EFCO), which owns Eurasian Bank and Eurasia Insurance Company. Mounissa Chodieva, daughter of Eurasian Resources Group (ERG) co-owner and EFCO shareholder Patokh Chodiev, has joined a growing legal battle involving top figures connected to the firm.…
Eight OPEC+ countries — Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman — have agreed on a quota increase of 547,000 barrels per day (bpd) for September, according to a statement on the organization’s website following the Aug. 3 meeting. In particular, Kazakhstan’s quota…
Leading Turkish e-commerce platform D-MARKET Electronic Services & Trading (Hepsiburada) has reported a net loss of 1.1 billion Turkish lira (approximately $27 million) over the first six months, up 1.5 times from the same period in 2024 ($17.5 million), according to its financial results. At the same time, Hepsiburada’s revenue…
Oil majors developing the Kashagan field — Kazakhstan’s largest oil and gas field on the Caspian shelf — have won a $4.2 billion environmental dispute in an Astana appeals court, according to Bloomberg. Sulfur dispute The case stemmed from a 2022 fine imposed by Kazakh authorities over excessive sulfur storage…
President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev believes the country has strong potential to become the leading air hub in the region. To achieve this, he emphasized the need to boost both passenger and cargo transportation. Speaking at an event dedicated to Transport Workers’ Day, the president highlighted that the most critical…
Forbes Kazakhstan has updated its ranking of the country’s richest people following a series of bold transactions in the banking sector. ForteBank owner Bulat Utemuratov rose from sixth to third place. The assets of Vyacheslav Kim and Timur Turlov also showed significant increases. Kim, co-owner of Kazakh fintech giant Kasp.kz,…
Kazakhstan’s First Deputy Prime Minister Roman Sklyar has dismissed claims that the recent sharp depreciation of the tenge was caused by comments made by Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov regarding the projected exchange rate of the national currency. On July 15, during a press conference, Bektenov stated that under the cabinet’s…
U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an executive order imposing a 25% tariff on imports from Kazakhstan, part of a broader trade move affecting more than 70 countries. The order, titled «Further Modifying the Reciprocal Tariff Rates,» was published July 31, 2025, on the White House website. Previously, imports from…
Kazakhstan’s most influential business figures have come together to form the Kazakhstan Investors Union (KIU), a new organization dedicated to promoting economic development and enhancing the investment climate. The companies of prominent tycoons Timur Kulibayev, Vladimir Kim and Oleg Novachuk were among the latest to join the recently established group.…
KMF, the largest microfinance organization (MFO) in Kazakhstan, is set to launch banking services this August, the company said in a statement. The decision followed the receipt of permission to convert into a bank from Kazakhstan’s Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market (ARDFM) in March. On July…
The European Union has created an exemption in its 18th sanctions package allowing Kazakh coal to transit through certain Russian ports, Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Trade and Integration announced. According to the ministry, the exemption applies only to coal of Kazakh origin. Additionally, the cargo must be owned by entities not…
Kazakhstan’s National Bank has launched a «regulatory sandbox» for digital assets, a controlled environment allowing companies to test new services using blockchain-based technologies, according to the regulator’s press office. The first round of pilot projects has been launched in four key areas: Real estate tokenization Digital tokens will be issued…
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has raised its inflation forecast for Kazakhstan in 2025, revising its earlier estimate of 8.2% to 10.2%, according to the bank’s July 2025 Asian Economic Outlook. The adjustment comes amid higher-than-expected inflationary pressure in Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. In Kazakhstan, despite the National Bank’s tight…
Halyk Finance has expressed concern over the growing role of the government as a source of long-term investment in infrastructure and the capacity of Kazakhstani enterprises. The share of budget funding in the structure of capital investment reached 21.9% in the first half of the year. Over the first six…
Home Credit Bank (HCB) will retain its credit profile after 100% of its shares are sold to ForteBank, according to Fitch Ratings. Moreover, the rating agency believes the government is unlikely to object if ForteBank provides support to HCB. According to HCB’s 2024 financial statements, cash loans account for 80%…
