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On April 25, 2022, the National Bank of Kazakhstan decided to raise the base rate from 13.5% to 14% with a percentage corridor of +/-1 p.p. The standing lending facility rate is now 15% while the standing facility rate for liquidity withdrawal is 13%.

The regulator said that this decision is based on the strong intention to prevent inflation amid rising geopolitical risks and a global price surge that affects Kazakhstan as much as many other countries in the world. On the other hand, for three years in a row fiscal boost has been one of the main drivers of...

The Anti-corruption Agency of Kazakhstan has launched a pre-trial investigation into the activities of Nurlan Masimov, former head of the police department of the Pavlodar region. He left the region right after resigning from his position as the chief of the local police. Law enforcement officials believe that he might be involved in bribery.

The examining court of the region approved his detention, so the police have issued a wanted notice for Masimov. As the agency said, the final decision about the former police officer must be taken by the courts after a full-scale investigation.

According to open-source information, Nurlan...

On April 21, the upper chamber of Kazakhstan’s parliament Senate ratified the agreement between the government of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Turkic Academy. This document regulates all the issues linked to the operation of the academy on Kazakhstani soil.

According to Askhat Aymagambetov, minister of education and science in Kazakhstan, the agreement is drawing a line under issues such as the status, privileges and immunity of the Turkic Academy, its property and staff in Kazakhstan. Members of the organization are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, and Azerbaijan while Hungary has the status of observer.

«Due to the fact that the...

Founder and majority shareholder of the international investment group Freedom Holding Corp Timur Turlov said in an interview with Kursiv.media that he is going to get naturalized in Kazakhstan.

According to Mr. Turlov, he’s already informed the Russian consulate about his intention to quit his Russian citizenship. He is going to take a similar move toward the island nation Saint Kitts and Nevis, where he obtained citizenship under the country’s investment program. The renunciation of nationality in any other country is the key requirement of Kazakhstan for those who want to be naturalized here. As Turlov highlighted, he decided to...

The first vice minister of national economy Timur Zhaksylykov said that there are two options for a possible deal with the sale of Russian bank subsidiaries in Kazakhstan.

The first option is a direct sale of loan portfolios of the Russian subsidiaries with a discount. On April 13, 2022, Halyk Bank already bought a part of the retail loan portfolio of Sberbank of $726 million. This deal covered car loans, issued within a preferential loans program; collateral-free loans; urgent cash loans and mortgage loans. As of April 1, the loan portfolio of Sber was about $2.4 billion.

«Probably some Russian...

According to the bank’s representatives, the negotiations between the bank and a potential buyer have reached a final stage and the deal may be finished within days.

On April 11, Andrey Timchenko, CEO of Alfa Bank Kazakhstan said that the entity is going to sell its business in the country and negotiate with potential investors. He also mentioned that about a dozen different investors examined the bank’s books.

Responding to a request by Kursiv.media, the bank said that the negotiations with investors have reached a final stage. «We are going to announce a deal within days,» reported the press service...

Kazakhstan is going to update its e-government system by moving it to a platform model on its own with no help from Russian Sber, according to Askar Zhambakin, vice minister of digital development and aerospace industry.

«Because of the geopolitical situation and reassessing our capabilities, we have decided to build this platform on our own with the help of IT companies from Kazakhstan. So far we have been conducting technical and economic analyses. By the end of this year we are going to roll out the first bunch of services based on a new platform,» he said.

Previously, the government...

Altynalmas (KASE: ALMS) is considering an option to freeze the further development of the Bestobe gold mine, according to Diyar Kanashev, CEO of the company, at a press briefing.

«If we want to develop this mine, we will need about $70 million of investments. But it doesn’t mean that we won’t need more investments in the future,» he said.

So far, Altynalmas has invested in the Bestobe project more than $110 million. The vast majority of that money was spent on the construction of a new ore-processing plant that reprocesses mine tailings. It was supposed that in the future the...

As the press service of Akorda reported, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has signed an edict on the de-bureaucratization of the state apparatus. The document is aimed at ensuring that government staff is making decisions fast and with a high level of efficacy. Also, Tokayev wants to remove excessive regulations from the executive branch, cut extra reporting and document flow and raise the level of independence and personal responsibility for top executives in the public sector.

In part of the initiative, the government is now obliged to revise a wide range of rules and orders by the county’s prime minister, his deputies...

On April 14, the Senate or upper chamber of Kazakhstan’s parliament considered a draft law on the protection of children’s rights, education, information and IT. Senators have updated the document and sent it back to Mazhilis, the lower chamber of the parliament.

According to Maulen Ashimbayev, speaker of the Senate, the chamber’s members very carefully examined the draft law and made a bunch of amendments to the draft.

«Senators have suggested that all claims of cyberbullying against a child must be reviewed by a special watchdog. A previous version of the draft law said that this kind of question falls...

Kazakhtelecom stocks (KZTK) have risen by 2.13% to $69.24, according to Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE).

On April 12, Skyline Investment Company S.A. and Alatau Capital Investment, both companies controlled by Kairat Satybaldy, nephew of Nursultan Nazarbayev, ex-president of Kazakhstan, handed over 28.8% share of Kazakhtelecom stock to the government. Both deals have been done free of charge.

In turn, the cabinet has officially agreed to sign a gift agreement with Skyline Investment Company S.A. and accept 2,671,481 common stocks or 24.95% of the company’s capital equity. At the same time, Alatau Capital Investment has donated 413,412 common stocks of Kazakhtelecom...

Sberbank subsidiary in Kazakhstan continues to work as usual after the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) under the U.S. Department of the Treasury postponed the deadline for completing transactions with Sberbank for an additional three months from April 13 to July 12, 2022, according to the joint statement of the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market and Sberbank Kazakhstan.

So, for now, clients of Sberbank in Kazakhstan will be able to make unlimited transactions with payments and transfers both in Kazakhstan’s national currency tenge and Russian rubles.

«The Agency of Kazakhstan for Regulation and Development of...

As the Halyk Bank’s call center told the Kursiv.media, it has bought Sber’s car loans portfolio and is now working on debt assumption. However, Sberbank refused to confirm this.

«Clients should make payments as usual. When their debt is sold to Halyk or any other bank, nothing will change for them,» a Sber’s representative said.

Some of the clients of Sber have already been informed about the assignment of rights. «Sberbank notifies you about the upcoming assignment of rights with no changes in loans conditions. Your data will be processed due to the upcoming assignment of rights. Once the procedure...

Alfa Bank Kazakhstan is negotiating with investors about the sale, the bank reported.

According to Andrei Timchenko, executive director of the bank, the financial organization is doing everything needed to stabilize and improve the situation Alfa Bank Kazakhstan has found itself in. Now the bank is negotiating its sale. More than ten investors are examining the entity’s books; they are going to take a decision very soon.

«No doubt, we can reach a deal and change shareholders in a couple of weeks or even sooner,» he said.

In addition, Alfa Bank wants to sell its loan portfolio to other Kazakhstani...

As S&P Global Ratings reported, Russia has defaulted on its foreign debt as the county tried to pay for its debt with rubles, not dollars, according to CNN.

Russia attempted to pay in rubles for two dollar-denominated bonds that matured on April 4, S&P said in a note on Friday.

The agency said this amounted to a “selective default” because investors are unlikely to be able to convert the rubles into “dollars equivalent to the originally due amounts.”

According to S&P, a selective default is declared when an entity has defaulted on a specific obligation but not its entire debt.

Over the period from January to March, Kazakhstan produced 714,000 tons of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which is 12.9 percentage points less than the same period last year. According to Bolat Akchulakov, minister of energy in Kazakhstan, the current situation is the result of the war in Ukraine; Kazakhstan no longer has the opportunity to export LPG into Ukraine.

At the same time, Kazakhstan itself has consumed about 6.7 billion cubic meters of conditioned gas. 

«Because of the growing amount of natural gas consumed domestically, the volume of exported gas has reduced. Over the first quarter this year, we exported...

According to the press service of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, he has appointed a new akim (governor) of the Zhambyl region.

Nurzhan Nurzhigitov has superseded Berdibek Saparbayev as the akim of the Zhambyl region.

Nurzhigitov was born in 1967. He graduated from Leningrad Agricultural Institute as a mechanic-engineer and Zhambyl Humanitarian-Technical University as an economist.

Over years of his career in the public sector, he worked as a specialist in the economic department of Zhualyn district of the Zhambyl region, senior inspector of the office of akim of Zhambyl region and head of the public service department under the Anti-Corruption Agency...

The chess player from Kazakhstan Bibisara Asaubayev has been listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the youngest female champion in blitz chess.

According to Kazakhstan’s Committee of Sports and Physical Culture, the 18-year-old female from Taraz hit a record during a tournament in Warsaw on December 30. Back then, she was 17-years-and-307-days-old.

In Warsaw, she was also ranked second in rapid chess. Bibisara outplayed Georgian chess player Nana Dzagnidze and compatriot Assel Serikbay but tied with Aleksandra Kostenyuk, a chess grandmaster from Russia.

Bibisara Asaubayeva is the only Kazakhstani adult world champion in chess. In 2019 she obtained...

Yesterday, on April 6, 2022, the U.S. imposed sanctions against subsidiaries of Sber and Alfa Bank in Kazakhstan. As a result, all assets of these banks should be frozen in the U.S. and no American company or individuals can do business with these entities, according to the official website of the White House.

The U.S. government has also imposed fully blocking sanctions against parent companies of Sberbank and Alfa Bank. The White House noted that Sber counts for one-third of all assets of the Russian banking sector while Alfa Bank is the biggest private financial organization in Russia and fourth...

Kazakhstan pharmaceutical companies forecast that drugs prices are going to soar.

Usually, medicine prices in Kazakhstan are increased every six months. However, this time the increase in drug prices may happen much earlier. The main driver of this change is soaring prices for medicine and medical raw materials.

«The pharmaceutical industry struggles with disruption of supply chains and increasing prices for logistical services. Also, it’s not an easy task to transport pharmaceutical products as they require a special approach while being transported or in storage. That’s why the cost of drugs has soared. Now businesses become less interested in producing...

Over the past 30 years, the population of the North Kazakhstan region has dropped twofold. As of February 2022, there were half a million residents while in 1991 the region accounted for one million people.  The decline in population is driven by a natural decline in the population and a negative balance of migration.

According to the Bureau of National Statistics, the population in the North Kazakhstan region has been declining since 1992 by 0.8-0.9% a year on average. Last year this rate was even faster – 1.8%.

As of March 1, 2022, the region is the least populated in...

According to Alibek Kuantyrov, minister of the national economy, the government plans to adjust the state budget due to the changing situation in the global economy. The estimated oil price for the current year is going to be about $90 per barrel. At the same time, the government has decreased its forecast for GDP growth in 2022 from 3.9% to 2.1%.

«A year-average oil price is set at the level of $90 per barrel. Based on this we have decreased the forecast for the GDP growth from 3.9% to 2.1%,» he said.

The formal volume of the country’s GDP is...

According to Mukhtar Tleuberdi, foreign minister of Kazakhstan, the country does not recognize the independence of the so-called People’s Republics of Luhansk and Donetsk.

At the same time, the official noted that Kazakhstan has no intention to join the set of sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States against Russia.

«There are two key points for us. First, we want these sanctions to not affect the development of our national economy. Second, we want our territory to not be used as a tool to bypass these sanctions,» he said.

Tleuberdi has also confirmed that the position of...

As the official website of Kazakhstan’s president reported, Darkhan Dilmanov has been discharged from the office of the deputy head of the National Security Committee/Head of the Border Guard Service.

«The president has discharged Darkhan Dilmanov from the office of the deputy head of the National Security Committee, head of the Border Guard Service,» the official statement said.

Darkhan Dilmanov was born in 1969 in Kyzylorda. He graduated from the Moscow Border Guard Highest Command School under Soviet KGB, Kyzylorda State University and Moscow Border Institute under Russian FSB.

Over the period from 1986 to 1998, he served in...